The Doctor and The Claras
by Planet of the Deaf
Summary: Clara has a new rival for the affection of The Doctor - herself! A multi Clara story with Eleven, following directly on from Time of The Doctor
1. Clara Oswin Oswald

**Clara has a new rival for the Doctor's affections - herself!**

**After my previous multi Doctor stories, and my emotional Menna story _Please Don't Change_, I present a multi Clara story. This follows on from the closing moments of _Time of the Doctor_. Some fluff, some whouffle, but some emotional moments as well...**

* * *

Clara looked across the TARDIS, and there he was, The Doctor. HER Doctor..

"You're young again. You're okay. You didn't even change your face."

"No need to, I was only dying of old age, nothing wrong with me otherwise, a refresh from Gallifrey, and I'm ready to roll for another 500 years! I quite like this regeneration anyway."

"Are you sure you're not suffering from vanity issues?" Clara smirked.

"Ha, ha, can't think where you got that phrase from! Anyway, better the devil you know Clara, I've no idea what the next version will be like, you might be grateful I've stayed the same!"

Clara rushed to hug the Doctor. She was very happy he'd stayed the same.

"But what does this mean Doctor? All the previous events at Trenzalore, does your grave now exist?"

"It's hard to say, a new timestream has been created, so the old events never happened. That grave doesn't exist, so you never jumped into my timestream to save me."

Clara looked a bit hurt.

"Sorry, what I meant is that you still did jump into my timestream, and I'm forever grateful for that, but that Time going forward has gone down a different route."

He kissed her on the forehead,

"But I can still remember it, and you only came after me because you'd seen my fragments? So how can I still be here?"

"Ah, yes, it's a bit tricky really, not sure how things have been affected really, it'll be quite interesting to find out."

At that moment, the Doctor's phone rang. As he STILL hadn't patched into the console, he once again had to go outside to answer it.

"Hello…Oh hello Madam Vastra…yes we're fine…an interesting day, well I nearly died of old age…hundreds of years…no she's fine…I sent her back to save her…something interesting…very interesting…I'll be right over."

"Vastra wants to see us urgently, someone who wants to see me apparently."

The Doctor powered up his TARDIS and returned back to Victorian London, January 1893, where he landed outside Madam Vastra's house.

"Vastra, good to see you again. What appears to be the problem?"

"Doctor, thanks for coming over so quickly. It's Clara."

"Hello" interjected Clara, who waved in her direction. "I'm over here!"

"No, not her. Governess Clara. She's alive!"

"Eh!" replied The Doctor. "But that's impossible."

"Well I am the _Impossible_ Girl" smiled Clara. "So I _did_ still jump into your timestream. Does this mean…"

"That your fragments might now all be alive? I fear that might be the case."

"Fear?" Clara glared at The Doctor.

"No, er not fear. It's just that it could be a bit tricky, all these versions of you, all alive simultaneously."

"Sounds good to me. Anyway, surely that's a good thing, all these Claras saving you."

"You should talk to her Doctor" interrupted Vastra. "Maybe it will help you understand what has happened. She's in the next room, she came here as her best chance of finding you again, a wise move."

The Doctor thought back to this amazing individual, who literally brought him back from his cloud, about the excitement he felt when he brought her to the TARDIS, and the pain and guilt when she died. Could she really be alive again? And how would the paradox of multiple Claras work out?

"Here goes" The Doctor replied, looking nervously at Clara, as he opened the door. In the other room he saw Clara Oswin Oswald, dressed in her Governess clothes. The voice that greeted him was pure barmaid Clara though.

"Doctor!" Clara Oswin Oswald cried out, as she rushed through the door, and planted a big kiss on his lips. "Still a good kisser I see" she smirked.

"You, er kissed me!" stammered the Doctor. "I never, I er mean…"

"I knew you'd return for me!" she continued. "You were all ready to take me away in your ship, the best ship in the universe, that's what you called it. I knew I'd find you again."

She then looked over and saw the glowering Clara, who was starting to wonder if all these other Claras were such a good thing after all.

"It's me! I er don't understand, is it magic, is it witchcraft? And why is she dressed like a tart?"

"I am not dressed like a tart!" replied an indignant Clara.

"Sorry" interrupted the Doctor, "Er this Clara is from the future, people dress differently then."

"This Clara?" replied Clara Oswin. "How can there be more than one of us?"

"She jumped into my timestream and got fragmented creating copies all over time and space, and you are one of them."

"Er, you lost me after jumped. But are you saying I'm a copy of her, a duplicate?"

"You're identical, same face, same height, or should that be lack of height" The Doctor laughed, until he saw the glares coming back from the Claras. "Sorry, er same cute nose."

The two Claras approached each other, it was uncanny. At that moment Strax entered the room.

"Two Claras! Identical clones, you are just like Sontarans!"

"Thank you Strax" replied The Doctor. "You may leave the room now. You will be summoned if I ever need your intellectual input into this issue. Though I may ask the memory worm first."

Strax left the room.

"So what happened" continued The Doctor.

"It's strange" replied Clara Oswin, "You'd showed me your magic ship, then this ice woman grabbed me and dragged me off your cloud. We were falling, I was falling to my death, then all of a sudden I found myself back in The Rose and Crown public house, collecting glasses before I'd met you. It was as if it was all a dream, but it seemed so real, too real to be a dream."

"Clara, all those events happened, but time got rewritten."

Clara Oswin looked even more puzzled.

"It's hard for even me to understand" continued The Doctor, "But my future got changed. I should have died, but didn't and to cut a long story short, as a result of all the changes, you're now alive as well!"

"Is your blue box still sitting on a cloud?"

"Definitely not, it's just outside. Fancy a ride?"

"I don't know, I mean I have the children to look after, they are with a family friend at the moment, but I have to collect them in an hour."

"Clara, this is a time machine, I can fly you back to five minutes ago if you want. What do you say? You must remember the feeling when I first brought you on board, it was going to be the day everything began. Then it was taken away from you."

"I've thought back to that moment, but it's all a bit blurry in my mind now, and I've started to wonder if it wasn't real."

"You asked if there was kitchen on board, as you like making soufflés. The other Clara makes them all the time, well tries to anyway."

Clara glared back.

"All of the universe is out there, waiting for you. Remember when I gave you the TARDIS key; that offer still stands."

"You never gave ME a key to the TARDIS!" interrupted Clara accusingly.

"Well, er I couldn't when I first met you, you were too, er impossible. And now, you don't need one to get in, old sexy just lets you in, now she knows you're, er normal."

"Well, I've always wondered what your ship could do" continued a wide eyed Clara Oswin, "I've never seen anything so magical. I guess one trip won't do any harm."

"That's the spirit" beamed The Doctor, grabbing Clara Oswin by the hand, and leading her to the TARDIS, followed by the other Clara who was starting to feel a bit left out.

Inside, Clara Oswin gazed in wonderment; it was as amazing as she had remembered it. Smaller on the outside, a magic box indeed.

"So, where do you want to go, eh? What do you want to see?" asked The Doctor, an eager look of anticipation on his face.

Clara thought back to when The Doctor had asked her the same questions. She could see the same excitement on The Doctor's face that she had seen when he took _her_ on her first flight, and felt a bit envious. He had someone new and exciting, and Clara wondered if things would ever be the same again for her and The Doctor. It had been hard meeting The Doctor's exes, such as River Song and Tasha Lem, and seeing his feelings for them, but this was worse. She remembered when The Doctor appeared at her door as a mad monk, and now fully understood that his excitement was not for her, but because he thought she was Clara Oswin Oswald, Victorian Governess. Being jealous of someone who was basically the same as yourself, a tricky one to deal with...

After a pause for thought, Clara Oswin replied.

"Take me to modern London, where this Clara lives. I want to see where the original Clara comes from."

"Oh" replied The Doctor, "Nowhere more exotic?"

"It's exotic to me. What year is it now where she's from?"

"Christmas 2013, so over a hundred years in the future."

"The world must be very different in 2013. Judging by the way _she_ dresses, I may look a bit out of place."

"Yes, added The Doctor, "You'll definitely have to take those clothes off."

Both Claras looked at him in mock horror.

"No, er, not like that, I er mean…"

"Blimey" replied Clara Oswin, smiling at Clara, "He doesn't hang around does he?"

"Ok, er Christmas Day 2013 then" continued the flustered Doctor.

"Maybe best avoid Christmas Day" suggested Clara, "Unless you wish to meet my family again. Though at least you've got clothes on this time."

Clara Oswin's eyebrows shot up.

"I'm starting to wonder what sort of person you are Mister!"

"No it's not like that" exclaimed The Doctor. "I was going to church!"

"You were going to church? Things have certainly changed! If I turned up to church naked, Reverend Brown wouldn't know where to look."

I think he probably would, thought The Doctor, who'd met a few Victorian clergymen…

"It's not that sort of church, and you don't actually appear naked, you have…" he searched for words that Clara Oswin might understand "…make believe clothes on, no not make believe, you have clothes on that don't actually exist, but look as if they exist, if er that makes sense..." he trailed off.

"Don't worry Clara" Clara interrupted, "We all still wear clothes in the 21st Century, I'd better find you something more modern to wear if you don't want to stand out too much. I have some longer skirts than this one, and at least there will be no problem finding something that fits!"

The two Claras went off to find Clara Oswin a new outfit. Clara Oswin was dumbfounded as they walked along the TARDIS's endless corridors, his ship was simply enormous. Eventually they found the TARDIS wardrobe, where Clara dug out the most modest dress she remembered wearing, which still seemed incredibly racy and improper to Clara Oswin.

The two of them returned to the TARDIS console; with Clara Oswin now wearing more modern clothing, their identical appearance was even more striking, even the Doctor had to do a double take.

"This is going to get very confusing" he smiled. "Clara Oswin, time to take your first journey in the TARDIS, December 23rd 2013 here we come."

The Doctor pulled the lever, the TARDIS took off then stopped, with a loud bang and sparks flying everywhere.

"That's not right! What's going on?"

The Doctor walked up to the door, and opened it. They were in the middle of nowhere.

"Come on sexy, why have you sent us here?"

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**All comments gratefully received.**

**I kept The Doctor as Eleven, as it made more sense to have him interacting with the Clara fragments he'd already met, rather than Twelve. Clara Oswin is Victorian Clara, if it isn't clear.**

**I wasn't able to specify a separate Clara Oswin Oswald character, as it's not on the list. Oswin Oswald was selected as a representative of the Clara fragments, and yes she will appear in the future...**


	2. Stranded

**The TARDIS has sent them out into deepest space...**

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The Doctor paced around the TARDIS, with the occasional moan of "What's wrong sexy?" and "Why have you brought us here?"

"Who's sexy?" whispered Clara Oswin to Clara. "Is there someone else on board?"

"No, that's his name for his ship the TARDIS. They have a very close relationship."

Clara Oswin's eyebrows shot up.

"No, not like that" continued Clara. "At least I hope not, no, eurghhh. It's more a deep bond; they've been together for over a thousand years."

"What's that?" continued The Doctor to his TARDIS. "You don't understand how there can be two of them, well I'm not entirely sure either, but there's no need to be huffy about it…Sorry dear, I didn't mean to be rude."

The two Clara smiled at each other. The Doctor then turned to them.

"The TARDIS is having a strop because there are two of you, with completely identical DNA. She doesn't like paradoxes. I'll see what I can do with her settings, this may take a while."

Clara Oswin walked to the door and opened it.

"Are we really in the middle of space, thousands, no millions of miles away from anywhere?"

The Doctor nodded.

"That's amazing, that's magical."

"The novelty will soon wear off if we're stuck here forever!" laughed Clara. "I'll show you around while we're waiting; watching The Doctor tinkering with his TARDIS isn't the most exciting thing in the universe."

The two of them walked off, leaving the Doctor to work on his machine. Clara took Clara Oswin all around the TARDIS, astonishing her as she saw the library, swimming pool and kitchen, as well as the endless corridors.

"Do you have your own room here?" asked Clara Oswin.

"Oh yes, I have a lovely bedroom, it took a while to get such a nice room as the TARDIS didn't like me at first, but since those early days we've become friends, and I have a lovely room, beautifully decorated with a massive, super comfy bed. "

Back at the console room, they found The Doctor, surrounded by various leads as he tinkered with the TARDIS.

"I'm overriding her controls, as otherwise she won't go anywhere with both of you on board. It may take some time."

"I think we might turn in for the night" replied Clara stifling a yawn. "Do you have guest bedrooms?"

"Oh yes, if you the follow the corridor next to the library, it leads to the guest rooms. They have stripy green doors for some reason, some of my past regenerations have had very strange tastes in colours."

"Goodnight Doctor, and have fun!"

The two Clara wandered off towards where the guest rooms were.

"The Doctor doesn't need much sleep" Clara explained, "I'm sure he gets up to all sorts of exciting adventures when I'm asleep."

They eventually found the stripy green doors. Clara opened the first one.

"Oh, this room is completely empty, let's try the next one…eurghh, no bed and full of spiders and dust, there must be a better room than that, let's try this one, WAAGGH!"

Inside the room a lion rose up and roared angrily before Clara hastily slammed the door shut.

"This isn't funny! "Clara exclaimed. "Why are you being a stroppy cow again!"

Clara then turned to Clara Oswin.

"I had this problem with the TARDIS all the time when I first moved in, I went through a period where my bedroom kept disappearing. I thought that was all in the past!"

"Your bedroom kept disappearing?"

"Yes, the interior of the TARDIS is very, er flexible. It's able to completely redesign itself. Especially when it's being _obnoxious_ towards me!"

Clara waved her fist in the air before continuing.

"I guess you'll have to share my bed tonight. It's massive, so there'll be plenty of space."

Clara led Clara Oswin to her bedroom.

"I don't believe it! What have you done to my room?"

Clara's bedroom was now completely different, a fraction of the size, and the palatial bed, was now a single bed.

"The stupid cow has now shrunk my bedroom and given me a single bed. It looks like we'll be having a very intimate night unless one of us sleeps on the floor."

"I'm happy to share if you're ok with that" replied Clara Oswin. It's not as if you've got anything I haven't already seen before!"

Clara looked shocked, then burst into laughter.

"I'll find you a nightdress, assuming my wardrobe hasn't gone as well"

It was a strange feeling for Clara as she lay in bed, her identical namesake next to her. They only had one pillow between them, so it was hard to avoid any contact. But then as the TARDIS had turned off the heating, she appreciated the warmth of the other Clara and instinctively snuggled up close to her. Clara Oswin was happy to get close to Clara as well, the two of them enjoying a good night's sleep together.

The next morning the two Claras returned to the TARDIS Console and approached The Doctor menacingly.

"Ah, good morning, how was your room Clara Oswin?"

"I spent the night with the other Clara" replied Clara Oswin.

"The guest rooms were useless" added Clara. "One was empty, one was full of spiders while the other had a vicious lion in it."

"A lion?"

"Yes a lion" replied Clara with a hint of menace in her voice. "Your stupid snogbox is being a cow again! Clara Oswin had to share my bed."

"At least you have a nice big bed, you could fit three of you in that bed!"

"Not any more, the TARDIS shrunk my room and my bed. We spent the night together in a single bed!"

"You two… in a single bed?"

"Yes, and the heating went off, it was freezing so we had to snuggle together to keep warm."

The Doctor looked a bit distracted, with a strange expression on his face.

"Doctor…Doctor!"

"Sorry, er miles away."

"And you can take that look off your face!" But Clara was smiling. "You have a filthy mind, Doctor."

"I certainly do not, er not at all. Anyway, I've managed to find a way to get us flying again."

"So you spent all night rewiring the console?"

"Er no, I spent half the night trying to rewire the console, then the other half pleading. We, er came to an arrangement."

"So the TARDIS won't be a cow to us any more?"

"Um, I'm not sure the arrangement went that far."

"Well there's two of us now Doctor" replied Clara approaching Clara Oswin. "And I think it's about time your TARDIS got used to it. Or someone is going to have a hard time."

The two Claras stood next to each other with crossed arms.

"I'll do my best" pleaded The Doctor, "It took enough effort just to get her to resume flying again, the rest may take a bit longer."

"In that case it looks like we'll be sleeping in your bed tonight."

The Doctor eyes lit up with a mixture of excitement and terror.

"And you can sleep with the lion!"

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**Thanks for the reviews, I really like _The Snowmen_ and Victorian Clara so wanted to bring her back (though modern Clara is the focus of this chapter). I love the word 'Claracest', even if I'm not entirely sure what it means! The two Claras are much closer in this chapter, though I can't promise they'll be this united all the time...**

**This chapter was slightly inspired by the minisode _Clara and the TARDIS_, blame Moff for putting smutty thoughts in my mind :-)**


	3. Clara and her sister

**In this Chapter Clara Oswin discovers a bit more about modern life, while things get stressful for Clara...**

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The Doctor launched the TARDIS to modern day London, and landed in the field near Clara's flat, which brought back sad memories for Clara of the Doctor leaving her behind twice on Christmas Day. Clara Oswin, on the other hand, was full of excitement as she exited, and took her first look at 21st Century life. She gazed in awe at the tower blocks, cars driving past and the occasional aeroplane flying over. It was all too weird to take in properly.

"My flat is up there on the 6th floor" announced Clara, pointing towards it. "I've only just moved in, as I lived with a family as a nanny to their two children for a year. I now work as an English teacher."

"I look after two children as well, as a Governess", replied Clara Oswin. "It's funny how we do such similar things. I can't wait to see your flat; the building you live in, blimey it's tall, I hope it's safe?"

"Oh yes!" Clara laughed. "Perfectly safe…except when The Doctor is around!"

The three of them entered the lift at the bottom.

"Just think of it as another magic box" explained Clara helpfully.

"Though smaller on the inside than the outside" added The Doctor with a smile.

When they reached the 6th floor, they got out and entered Clara's flat.

"Make yourself at home, while I make some tea."

The Doctor slumped on the sofa and turned on the TV, much to Clara Oswin's astonishment.

"There's tiny people in that box, that's an amazing magic trick, how did you do that? A dog as well, I'm not sure I can cope with such witchcraft! Did you shrink them down, don't shrink me down, I'm small enough as it is!"

"Don't worry Clara, there's no people in that box, it's just an image, it's like er a moving photograph."

"A moving photograph, that's amazing! In colour too. There's only one photograph of me, it's a nice one though."

Clara Oswin looked around the small living room, books good, magazines; yes she recognised those as well, though they were a lot glossier than she was used to. A plant, fine, a keyboard like that from a typewriter, but squashed flat, and attached to a flat black 'thing' where were the mechanics? And now Clara came through with the tea, talking to herself, no she was talking to her father about Christmas Day but how could she be talking to him, when she wasn't talking into a telephone; that was one piece of modern equipment Clara Oswin recognised, and Clara seemed to be talking into a tiny 'thing'? Oh this future world was very confusing. At least the tea looked the same, thank god for the good ole English cuppa.

At that moment Clara's doorbell rang, and the Doctor got up straight way to answer it before Clara could move. Clara and Clara Oswin listened in from the living room.

"Oh hello Angie and Artie!" exclaimed The Doctor.

A look of panic appeared on Clara's face.

"Hi Doctor" spoke Angie.

"Hello Clara's boyfriend" said Artie.

Clara Oswin turned to Clara with a quizzical smile on her face, with Clara hurriedly shook her head and mouthed no, back.

"We weren't interrupting anything, were we Doctor?" continued Angie with a smile on her face. "Between you and Clara…"

"No…NO! Come in, Clara it's Angie and Artie, and this is er"

"This is Oswin my twin sister" interrupted Clara.

"I never knew you had a twin sister. Pleased to meet you, I'm Artie."

"Delighted to meet you too" replied Clara Oswin, but in her 'posh' Miss Montague voice. "A pleasure to be of your acquaintance."

Clara looked dumbfounded.

"Hi I'm Angie. You don't sound very similar to Clara, though you look identical."

"I was sent far, far away for my education, they did a most excellent job."

"You must have had a completely different upbringing from Clara, as your accent is so different. Quite old fashioned too."

"A twin sister, that's so cool" added Artie. "I'd love an identical twin."

"I bet The Doctor loves having an identical twin to Clara, bit of a fantasy for many men that!"

"Angie!" exclaimed Clara, while The Doctor stared at his shoelaces.

"We came over to drop off your Christmas present" continued Angie with a smile. "We'll be off, as I'm sure you three have lots to be getting on with."

"_Thank you_ Angie, I'll bring round your presents tomorrow. "

Angie and Artie walked to the door, then Angie spoke again.

"Clara, when we showed you that photo of you in Victorian London, you didn't recognise it. Maybe that was your twin? I'd be careful of the Doctor, he might be two timing you with your sister!"

"I don't think so" replied Clara testily, shoeing the children out of the door. "Goodbye."

"I think we interrupted something" smiled Angie as she left. "Merry Christmas Doctor and your girlfriends!"

Once the children had gone, Clara spoke.

"That really wasn't helpful, god knows what Angie and Artie will think now. It's bad enough that they know about the TARDIS and that I travel with an alien; now they think there's two of me!"

She then turned to Clara Oswin.

"And why were you speaking in that stupid voice?"

"It's my Governess voice, I use it to blend into society."

"But we don't talk like that here!"

"Better ask your boyfriend what he thinks" Clara Oswin smirked

"He is not my boyfriend!"

"The children think he is!"

At that moment Clara's doorbell rang again.

"Grrr" exclaimed Clara, "You two into the bedroom! I'm not going through all that again."

Clara pushed Clara Oswin and The Doctor into the bedroom, and shut the door before returning to the front door.

"Oh hello Doreen, how are you."

"Hello Clara, I'm fine thank you. I was wondering if you were going to be around over Christmas, as we'll be having a little get together upstairs on the 27th. A few drinks and nibbles, that sort of thing."

"Oh, er thank you for the offer, at this stage it's a bit difficult to predict my movements, you know how it is, one minute you're here, the next you're millions of miles away. No, er not millions of miles away, that would be ridiculous, you'd need a time machine for that, which er I don't have. And they don't exist anyway. Obviously..."

"You ok dear? You look a bit stressed, I think you've been working too hard."

"Sorry, been a bit of a funny day. I seem to be living the life of two people at the moment, er I'll let you know, thank you for the offer."

"Bring your boyfriend, I do like that coat he wears. Merry Christmas Clara if I don't see you beforehand."

"Merry Christmas."

Once Clara shut the door, The Doctor bounded through the bedroom door.

"Ooh, I do like a party, I hope they have cheese footballs! I'll set the TARDIS so we can jump straight to the 27th."

"Doctor, you're not going."

"Oh, but she said I could come. And she likes my coat!" he beamed.

"Doctor, I need to get out of here! Somewhere nobody knows me, where I do not have to explain the presence of a time travelling alien and a clone of me to all my friends and neighbours. Before I CRACK UP!"

"Ok, I get the message. There's somewhere I've been meaning to go anyway, now is as good a time as any..."

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**Thanks for the reviews and comments, I seem to be giving Clara a slightly hard time in this story, but then I'm usually mean to Eleven, so it's only fair! This story has started becoming fluffier than I was expecting, I must do something about that in the next chapter :-)**


	4. I can't rewrite history

**In this Chapter Clara learns that travelling with The Doctor isn't always easy...**

* * *

The three of them walked back into the TARDIS, and while The Doctor fiddled with the console, Clara and Clara Oswin wandered off towards the kitchen.

"So what did you think of my flat then?" asked Clara.

"Oh, it was er very nice. It's hard to compare as I have two separate lives, Captain Latimer lives in a lovely large house with big grounds, whereas my family live somewhere much smaller and more crowded."

"I wouldn't choose to live in that block, but it was all I could afford."

"It must be strange to live by yourself."

"My family all live up north in Blackpool, and there aren't so many job opportunities up there."

"Why don't you live full time on the TARDIS?"

"I like my independence, and I don't know if I would want to spend _all_ my time with The Doctor. Besides…I need to stop myself."

"Stop yourself what?"

But Clara was interrupted before she could reply by the Doctor bounding in from the console room.

"Good old TARDIS databanks, I knew she'd know where we need to go!"

"So Doctor" asked Clara "Where are we off to?"

"Do you remember me talking about the Dalek Asylum, and how you rescued me there?"

"Yes, it was those memories that helped persuade me to jump into your timestream."

"That version of you was called Oswin Oswald, she was a junior entertainment officer on the Starship Alaska, a spaceship which crashed onto a planet on her first flight. This planet held the Dalek Asylum, a place where all the rogue Daleks were kept, Daleks so deranged and dangerous, even the normal Daleks were afraid of them. Everyone else on the ship was converted into a Dalek puppet or died, you remember what happened to everyone in The Church? Oswin saved my life, she enabled me to escape, but…"

The Doctor paused and looked a bit emotional.

"Doctor?"

"They did a full conversion on her, converted her into a Dalek. That's how she was able to hack into their systems and reprogram them. Oswin inherited all the computer skills you were uploaded with, when you were absorbed by the Wi-Fi. After we escaped, the Daleks destroyed the planet, and all the rogue Daleks, including her."

Clara Oswin had been listening to all this with a puzzled expression on her face.

"I've no idea what you're talking about, Dalek, computer, Wi-Fi? But are you saying that another version of me, er us, saved you there? Blimey, you do get into some scrapes don't you!"

"You were born to save The Doctor" added Clara.

"What does that mean?"

"I jumped into The Doctor's timestream to save him from The Great Intelligence. That had the effect of creating thousands of versions of me, all dying to save him, all along his timestream, which is a very long time. You are one of them, and so was Oswin."

"But I'm alive now?"

"Then maybe Oswin is alive too. Doctor, do you think she might have survived?"

"I don't know" he replied, "But I'd like to find out."

"How are you going to do that?"

"I've managed to find out where the Starship Alaska took off from."

"So we're going to go there and tell Oswin to not board the vessel?"

"No, I can't rewrite history like that."

"But you're always changing history; we just did it at Trenzalore."

"Sorry, but no, I can't go around saving people who died in fixed points of time; who knows what effects that could have?"

"But surely saving one person won't do any harm?"

"Clara, nobody knows what effects that could have. Every action has a reaction, a consequence. And if I tell Oswin not to board, where do I stop. Do I tell a few more people not to board, half the people, all the people? Clara where do I stop, do I tell the Captain of The Titanic to take more care with icebergs?"

Clara was getting emotional.

"But one person is all I'm asking for" she pleaded. "Oswin originally saved you; surely you can save her in return? What's the use of having a time machine if you can't do some good with it?" A tear trickled down her cheek.

"Clara" replied The Doctor, "Oswin was a genius, maybe she found a way to save herself, or maybe time reset itself in some strange way. I really hope she's survived, but I can only be an observer in what happens."

An upset Clara turned away from The Doctor and had an emotional embrace with Clara Oswin, which hurt him deeply, even if he knew he was doing the right thing. He hoped Clara would understand in due course, even more so he hoped that there would be a happy ending, that somehow the Starship Alaska and everyone on board would be safe.

The Doctor set his TARDIS in motion, and once it had landed slowly walked to the door before speaking.

"This is Space Anchorage. This is where the Starship Alaska took off from on its last voyage, unless something happened to change its course."

Clara's eyes were growing moist as she thought about the people on board, people who would soon die a horrible death, people that the Doctor refused to save. Yes she understood that time travellers had responsibilities, but to allow so many people to die like that was hard to take.

"Don't worry" spoke Clara Oswin to her. "I was saved after my history was rewritten, I'm sure something will happen to save everyone."

The Doctor opened the door of the TARDIS, and there in front of them was the Starship Alaska, an impressive sight, as it sat glistening in the sun next to a terminal building. It was a lovely, peaceful day, a peace broken as the spaceship fired its engines up, and with a massive roar, disappeared into the sky. The three of them inside the TARDIS watched in silence as it flew away, all set to meet its doom, and with Oswin on board. Clara broke down in tears again, and shunned The Doctor's attempts to console her, which broke his heart.

Then the silence inside was broken by Clara Oswin.

"Look!" she whispered.

The door of the terminal building had opened, and out stepped a familiar looking petite brunette. She was dressed in a long coat and was carrying a large suitcase, which she put down before sitting disconsolate on the doorstep.

"She's identical to us!" Clara Oswin continued, "That must be her!"

Clara Oswin hugged Clara, who couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"Stay here" instructed The Doctor, "I'm popping over to have a word. The sight of you two might freak her out!"

The Doctor walked over to the gloomy looking brunette.

"Hello, I was wondering what happened?"

"Oh, er hello. I've been sacked, and on my first day. It was my big chance to see the universe, and I blew it."

"What happened?"

"I was only being friendly, a bit of banter with the Captain, well you should have seen his ears, they were enormous. I might have called him Dumbo, and he took offence. I was only trying to break the ice, but got removed from the ship before we even took off. That must be some sort of record!"

"Ah. Is your name Oswin Oswald?"

"Yes, how do you know that?"

"I'm The Doctor. Do you remember me?"

"No. Never met you in my life. There is something familiar about you though."

"Did you perhaps dream about me?"

"Do you always use that cheesy chat up line? You should try a better one next time, I might say yes!" Oswin smiled saucily at The Doctor.

"No, NO! I was er more wondering if you'd had dreams that seemed real, so real that you wonder if they actually happened."

"Now I think about it, there's something familiar about you, there's something sticking out that I can't quite put my finger on…"

However much The Doctor hated being teased about his chin, he found himself jutting it out to try and spur Oswin's memories, much to the amusement of Clara and Clara Oswin, who were secretly watching from the TARDIS.

Then something triggered in Oswin's mind.

"I've no idea what's going on, as you shouldn't exist, and indeed you don't exist as I've never met you, but…hello there chinboy!"

* * *

**The Doctor often has hard decisions to make when it comes to fixed points in time, times when he has to act against the wishes of those he loves...**

**I wanted this Chapter to be a bit darker, but not so dark that Oswin didn't survive :-)**


	5. The Dalek asylum

**Thanks for the reviews I've received, I do appreciate them, so would like one or two more :-)**

**The story continues with Oswin.**

* * *

"I don't understand" continued Oswin, "I don't know you, but yet I've met you before, and it wasn't just a fleeting moment either."

"There's a lot I need to explain to you" replied The Doctor. "Do you remember anything about me?"

Oswin then looked towards the TARDIS and saw the two Claras.

"There's two more of me! Wow, are you collecting us, a harem of Oswin Oswalds, this gets weirder and weirder. You've got good taste in women, I'll give you that."

Oswin smirked.

"I was pretty sure you fancied me when you first came over, now I'm 100% sure!"

"No, er um, it's er not like that."

"No need to be shy chinboy. Most people would be satisfied with just one of me, but clearly that's not enough for you. But which one of us is your favourite though? A tough choice!"

"Oswin" replied the Doctor sheepishly, trying to steer the conversation away from that topic, "Do you remember the Dalek Asylum?"

"Something about that sounds familiar, it's…oh, oh god, it's all starting to come back, but how, why?"

Oswin's smile disappeared.

"Doctor, what happened to me? It was something terrible wasn't it?"

"You're safe now, come back to my ship I'll explain what's going on."

The Doctor led Oswin back to the TARDIS.

"What, that's your ship? Pretty intimate in there!"

"Um, you'll understand when you go inside."

Oswin walked into the TARDIS and couldn't believe her eyes.

"It's massive inside, how can this make sense? And how many more version of me do you have, one for each day of the week?"

"Just the three of you, well so far anyway" replied The Doctor. "Oswin, meet Clara Oswald and Clara Oswin Oswald."

"Hello!" spoke Clara and Clara Oswin in unison.

"Hmm, the similar names could get a bit confusing. Mind if I take my coat off."

Oswin removed her long coat to reveal a clingy and short sexy red dress underneath. The Doctor's jaw dropped, something that Clara and Clara Oswin didn't fail to notice.

"Blimey" whispered Clara Oswin to Clara, "I thought _you_ dressed like a tart! But I think he approves."

The Doctor regained his composure.

"I'm a time traveller, and this is my ship the TARDIS. Clara Oswald is the original version of you. To save my life she jumped into my timestream, and was shattered into a million pieces, a million versions of her scattered across time and space, all saving me, and dying."

"Timestream?"

"That's the history of my life, preserved as scar tissue in time."

"Don't worry" interrupted Clara Oswin, "I don't understand it either!"

"Phew, that's a relief. I was wondering if that was the physics lesson at school I bunked off from! Sorry, keep going Doctor."

"Ok yes, but then history got rewritten, after which er Clara saved me again, and now it seems that all the versions of her scattered across history didn't die after all."

"So what happened to me?"

"What do you remember anything about the Dalek asylum?"

"Vaguely, was I there, as I've had horrible nightmares about being trapped on this planet, and being attacked by these terrifying creatures? Daleks, I remember the name."

"The Dalek asylum was a prison planet where all the most deranged Daleks were kept. Your ship, the Starship Alaska crashed into it, and you survived. The Daleks back above detected something, captured me and sent me in to investigate and destroy the asylum. It was the only way I could get out alive."

"You weren't alone were you? I remember now, an angry Scottish woman and this guy, Nina."

"Nina?" interrupted a surprised Clara.

"Sorry, not Nina, what was his name? Quite cute looking, large nose. "

"Rory" replied the Doctor." And the woman was his wife Amy, Amelia the first face this face saw. My previous companions before Clara."

He exchanged eye contact with Clara, to make it clear he meant her.

"They were dear friends. We were trapped down there, but you managed to drop the shields and we escaped. You reprogrammed the Daleks to forget all about me, you were a genius. But sadly…you were also a Dalek. When I went to rescue you, they had converted you into a Dalek as well."

"Oh."

"You did a brilliant job of hiding the terrible truth though; despite being converted into a Dalek, you still kept your human mind, and imagined a world for yourself, in which you listened to Carmen and made soufflés for a year."

Clara and Clara Oswin looked at each other at the mention of soufflés.

"I remember now" replied Oswin, "I dropped the shields, and as you escaped the planet started exploding, then all of a sudden I found myself back in my own bed, on the day I was due to board the Starship Alaska for the first time. I thought it was all a nightmare."

"Oswin, it was all real, but now time has taken a different path, and you are alive again."

"What happened to Rory and Amy? Did they also make it out alive?"

"They did make it out, but I've lost them now. They were sent away to a point in time I can never visit."

The Doctor's eyes started getting moist

"I can never see them again."

Clara moved to hold the Doctor's hand, but was beaten to it by Oswin, which pained her.

"I'm really sorry" replied Oswin. "You must still really miss them."

"It was terrible, but I was brought back to happiness by Clara, Clara Oswin and all the versions of you roaming around all of my history. Thank you."

"You were going to show me the stars weren't you Doctor" replied Oswin. "Does that offer still stand?"

"Most definitely! One question Oswin. Why did the Starship Alaska crash into that planet, the Dalek asylum? Surely it wasn't meant to be flying anywhere near there?"

"Ah, that might be my fault. We were flying along, and I saw this distant, cool looking planet out of the window, and I might have suggested to the First Officer how I'd love to take a closer look, and he happened to be flying the Starship Alaska that day as the Captain was unwell."

"Suggested?"

"Ok, more than that, I can be quite persuasive when I fancy something. Oh god, what did I do?"

"In that version of time, you set off a whole series of terrible events. Thankfully they never happened now, as you never got to fly in the Starship Alaska, were never there to influence the First Officer to fly too near to that planet, and thus the Starship Alaska, which has just taken off, won't now crash into the Dalek asylum. Everybody lives!" The Doctor beamed.

"But what about you Doctor" replied Clara. "How did you get off the Dalek asylum if Oswin hadn't been there?"

"Ah, but that's the thing. The Daleks only wanted the asylum destroyed after Oswin started broadcasting from it. Without her, they had no need to worry about it, and had no need to involve me."

"So all the rogue Daleks live as well!" added Oswin.

"I guess so. Hmm, so in this instance, Oswin saved me, but if she hadn't caused the Starship Alaska to crash into the asylum in the first place, there would have been no need for me to be saved in the first place."

"Oops."

"Ah well, everything _somehow_ worked out in the end. I do wonder how many other Claras there are out there, but I think three is more than enough to be getting on with for the time being. Especially with you three having to share that single bed!"

* * *

**So now the Doctor has three "Claras", I'm sure that won't be the end of it!**


	6. I gave you up Clara

**Clara now has two of her fragments with her in the TARDIS...**

* * *

While the Doctor was busy plotting a new destination, Clara took the opportunity to show Oswin around the TARDIS, with Clara Oswin following along as well. Oswin was, like Clara Oswin beforehand, amazed by the size of the ship, the endless corridors, the bizarre rooms, the library, the swimming pool. And then Clara brought her to see her current bedroom…

"This is it I'm afraid, it used to be several times bigger, and with a king sized bed, but since Clara Oswin came on board, the TARDIS has become a cow to me again, and shrunk it down. I had these problems with her when I first came on board, as she doesn't like the paradox of more than version of me existing. And since she refuses to give Clara Oswin her own bedroom, despite there being thousands of rooms on board, we had to share this tiny bed last night."

"Ooh, very intimate" replied Oswin. "Ah, Nina" she sighed, "Sorry, nothing."

"Who's Nina?"

"Oh, er just a friend. Anyway, we can't all sleep in that bed, so we'll have to find a way to get the TARDIS to change its mind."

Later on Clara approached the Doctor, who was fiddling with his console.

"Ah hello there. It must be exciting having the other two Claras on board, you won't need me now!"

"Oh, I wouldn't say that exactly."

"Where are they?"

"After I showed them the kitchen, they decided to try and make a soufflé. To celebrate Oswin coming on board."

"Well I hope they're better at making them than you are, your soufflés are hopeless!"

The Doctor recoiled, waiting for a barbed comment or perhaps a punch into the arm after this comment, but nothing was forthcoming. He realised something was wrong, as Clara would never normally not react like that.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, everything's fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course, Peachy keen."

"You can tell me, I know something's up."

"Ok, it's just that, on Trenzalore, I thought I'd lost you, you sent me away twice, and I thought I'd never see you again. It was horrible, being grilled on Christmas Day by my horrible step mother about boyfriends, and then I heard that noise, I thought you'd come back for me, I ran out, and into the TARDIS and instead of you, it was Tasha. If it wasn't for her, you would have died all alone on that planet. It was her that brought me back to say goodbye to you. Why did you lie to me? Why did you send me away?"

"I couldn't bear to see you get old and die Clara, and what sort of life would it have been for you there? Stuck on a planet in darkness, being shot at by all my enemies. No, I wanted you to have a proper life, not waste your time there."

"But it wouldn't have been a waste of time, as I would have been with you."

"No, it was for your own good. I gave you up Clara. Don't think it was easy." The Doctor looked down on the floor.

"To then come back, and see you old and frail, and about to die was terrible. I begged to the Timelords through the crack, to do something to help you."

"It was you?"

"Yes."

"Thank you, thank you" The Doctor hugged Clara. "You saved me again, my impossible girl."

"After you regenerated in the church tower, I presumed that was it, and that a new Doctor would emerge, one who would be different, one that…wasn't you."

"Well, here I am! Same as ever."

"I thought I'd lost you, then you came back, and I thought things could go back to how they were, the Doctor and Clara."

"But they are!"

"But now there are hundreds, thousands maybe millions of Claras out there, all probably more interesting and exotic than me. "

A tear rolled down Clara's cheek.

"I saved you, but now you have all the other Claras to seek out, what am I? What use do you have for me when you can take your pick of all the Claras out there."

"Don't be silly" replied the Doctor, kissing Clara on the forehead and wiping the tear away. "You'll always be special to me. You'll always be my favourite Clara."

"I bet you say that to all the other Claras" Clara replied, trying to raise a smile, and failing.

"Clara, the fragments of you are all brave, caring and clever and yes, they're all pretty, but that's because they're you. But they're not exactly the same as you, you'll always be special, as without you none of them would exist, and neither would I."

"How many Claras have you met previously?"

"Not many, most of the time they worked behind the scenes, so I was unaware that they were saving me from the Great Intelligence. So don't worry, I'm, not working my way through a long list! I wasn't plotting a course to find the next one, honest. Indeed, I wouldn't know where to look."

Before Clara could reply, Clara Oswin and Oswin returned to the console.

"So how was the soufflé?" asked the Doctor.

"Er, it was too beautiful to live" replied Oswin sheepishly.

"Hmm, your fragments are _exactly _like you in some ways, as they can't make a soufflé either" The Doctor replied, smiling at Clara, who couldn't stop herself smiling back.

"Apologies for interrupting you two" continued Clara Oswin, "But we've been thinking and it's obvious what's going on, with the bedroom problems."

"It is?"

"Yes" added Oswin, "Either the TARDIS really hates Clara and us fragments or she wants us to be closer to you Doctor, _much_ closer."

"I'm not sure I follow?"

"Clearly the TARDIS wants us to share your room!"

"What! All three of you! You can't, I mean er..."

"It's what your ship wants. Why else would it be hiding the spare bedrooms. Clara, do you know where the Doctor's bedroom is?"

"Yes, it's a short distance from here. A very nice bed too."

"A nice bed, you know it well?" Oswin and Clara Oswin smiled as they looked towards Clara.

"No, NO! He showed me his room once, and the bed is very nice _looking, _ornate carvings and so on. The Doctor doesn't sleep much anyway."

"Really? Well it's none of our business what you two get up to in his snogbox at night."

"It is not a snogbox!" Being ribbed with her own phrases was not an experience Clara was enjoying.

"Anyway, you know where it is, you can lead the way!"

Clara and the Doctor walked sheepishly towards his room, down the main corridor, to the right, past the library and...

"It's not there!" exclaimed Clara.

"Come on sexy, where's my bedroom?" moaned the Doctor.

"Sexy is his nickname for the TARDIS apparently" whispered Clara Oswin to Oswin.

"A jealous girl clearly" whispered Oswin back.

"This is getting ridiculous, you can't hide my room as well!" continued the Doctor. "I know it's a bid odd, having three identical Claras with me, but that's just how it is, and can you please stop behaving like this. It's so... _childish_!"

The TARDIS made a defiant noise.

"And there's no need for language like that either!"

The Doctor turned to the Claras.

"This is hopeless; as you three need sleep it looks like we'll have to find somewhere else to stay for the night. Somewhere nice and large, with plenty of spare rooms, to give me time to win the TARDIS around."

He then turned to Clara Oswin.

"What about Captain Latimer's house, that was massive!"

"You can't all stay there!" exclaimed Clara Oswin, "He'd have a fit. He knows nothing about you, he doesn't even know about my life as a barmaid. What would his reaction be?"

"Oh we can bluff it out, Clara and Oswin are your identical sisters come to visit for the night. I remember the children, they'll love having them around."

"And what about you?"

"I'll be er, um..."

"Clara's husband?"

* * *

**All reviews gratefully received!**

**I can quite imagine Clara being worried about the impact of all these new Claras on the Doctor. **

**Revisiting Captain Latimer and his children is a good excuse to watch The Snowmen again before writing the next Chapter :-)**


	7. Dr and Mrs Smith

**The four of them need to spend a night somewhere, as 3 sisters and a husband...**

* * *

"Whoa" exclaimed Clara, "I'm not going to be the Doctor's wife! I mean, we'd have to share a room."

"Well it's the only logical way of explaining his presence" replied Clara Oswin. "Unless you'd prefer Oswin to be his wife?"

It was a hard choice for Clara. On the one hand she had been desperate to keep a slight distance from the Doctor, to not become involved, but then Clara looked across at the flirty Oswin, and the thought of the Doctor being near her was too much to bear. One night, she would be able to control her feelings for one night surely?

"Ok, ok. I'll be the one married to the Doctor."

"I'll probably be in the TARDIS most of the time anyway, trying to sort out the missing room problem!"

"One other thing concerns me Doctor. Clara Oswin remembers what happened to her before Time got reset, what if everyone else in the house remembers as well?"

"Oh I'm sure that won't be the case, you're all special. Impossible, which is why you can remember things others can't. You three had better get changed into something more suitable, Clara you know where the Victorian clothing is."

The three of them went to get changed; Clara Oswin put her Governess's outfit back on, while Clara and Oswin found some suitable clothing in the TARDIS wardrobe.

"Why are you so worried about sharing a room with the Doctor?" asked Oswin. "I've seen the look in your eyes, you clearly fancy him, that's something we inherited from you!"

"That's the problem, I don't want to get involved, I'm human, he's a 2000 year old Timelord, and it would only end in heartbreak. The Doctor will always move on, that's in his nature, he doesn't like endings, but what about me? I will grow old while he stays young."

"Maybe it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."

"That's very profound Oswin."

"Besides, if you don't make a move, someone else might!" Oswin smiled at the open mouthed Clara.

The three of them reconvened with the Doctor shortly afterwards.

"I can't believe people wear this all the time" moaned Oswin, "I can hardly breathe in this corset, and this stupid bustle really gets in the way."

"Agreed" replied Clara, "I can't wait to get these clothes off Doctor."

Oswin started smirking, which produced a glare from Clara.

"When we leave the TARDIS" said the Doctor, we'll need to talk like Clara Oswin as well, she's a well-spoken Victorian governess, we can't go in there sounding all modern or northern."

"Oi! There's nothing wrong with my accent!"

"I didn't er mean it in that way Clara, sorry I meant that a governess wouldn't speak that way, she'd have lessons to speak properly, no not properly, as you speak properly, but in a non-northern manner…" the Doctor tailed off.

"I'll first drop Clara Oswin off to pick up the children" continued the Doctor, trying to change the subject, "Once you've cleared it with Captain Latimer, you can come and fetch us."

The Doctor dropped Clara Oswin off at exactly the right time she was due to pick up the children, which pleased him. She exited the TARDIS which was parked discretely around the corner and collected the children from their friend's house.

"Francesca, Digby, did you have a good afternoon?"

"We had a lovely time Miss Montague" replied Francesca. "Have you had a pleasant day?"

"Oh yes Francesca, but frightfully busy. It's almost as if I've had two days crammed into one!"

Back at the house, Clara Oswin sought out Captain Latimer.

"Ah, come in Miss Montague. I believe you wanted to see me."

"Captain Latimer, I'm here to ask a favour of you. I have relatives passing through, and would be most grateful if they could spend the night here."

"I don't see that as a problem. Who are they?"

"My sister Oswin, and my other sister Clara with her husband John. Dr and Mrs Smith."

"I never knew you had any sisters, you've never mentioned them in the past?"

"It never seemed appropriate to being the topic up. I prefer to concentrate my energy on the children."

"So these sisters of yours, are they older or younger than you."

"They're the same age. We're identical triplets."

"Identical triplets. That's most unusual."

"Indeed, it created a great deal of interest in the village."

"I can quite imagine that. I take it they must look like you then?"

"Oh yes, a remarkable likeness."

"Hmm…interesting….ooh yes, er, get Alice to make up the guest rooms."

"Thank you Captain Latimer."

Clara Oswin returned to the TARDIS.

"Captain Latimer is happy for you to stay. And don't forget, you're Dr and Mrs Smith, John and Clara, while you are my other sister Oswin Montague. I told him that you were passing through the area. I'll introduce you to the children when we get there, you'll like them."

The four of them then left the TARDIS to walk towards Captain Latimer's house. They had just reached it when a familiar voice greeted the Doctor.

"My god, there's three of them now. Are you cloning them sir?"

"Strax, what are you doing here?" exclaimed the Doctor.

"Madame Vastra wanted me to keep an eye on the house, in case anything funny happens there again."

"Fine, now go away. We don't want out real identities to be revealed to Captain Latimer."

"So what's your investigation sir?"

"We're not investigating anything! In case anyone asks you, this" he pointed at Clara Oswin "is Miss Montague, and these two are her sisters Clara and Oswin. I'm married to Clara."

"Congratulations sir, I will tell Madam and Miss Jenny the good news!"

"We're not really married, we're just pretending" the Doctor groaned.

"Shame, Madam and Miss Jenny will be so disappointed."

"Thank you Strax, now we must be making a move. Oswin, that was Strax. He looks like a potato, you can work out the rest."

The four of them walked over to Captain Latimer's House, Clara Oswin leading them into the study where Captain Latimer was waiting.

"Captain Latimer" announced Clara Oswin, "May I introduce to you to my sister Miss Oswin Montague, and my other sister Clara and her husband, Dr and Mrs John Smith."

"Delighted to meet you" replied Captain Latimer. "Your two sisters do indeed resemble you, it's quite a vision seeing you three together. A _charming _vision."

"We are grateful for your hospitality" replied the Doctor. We have just returned from Brighton where we were visiting my sister, and are very grateful for the opportunity to break the journey."

"That's no problem at all. You look familiar, have we met before?"

"Oh, I don't think I've had the pleasure."

"Sorry, I must be imagining it. Alice has prepared rooms for you, I'm sure you must be very tired after your journey."

Clara Oswin took them upstairs.

"This is your room Oswin, and this is your room, Dr and Mrs Smith!"

Clara looked inside. The room was as she imagined a Victorian bedroom would be like, from what she'd seen in books and museums. The centre piece was an impressive looking four poster bed.

"I could happily flake out now" exclaimed Clara, but it'll take me hours to get out of my bustle and corset. Do you think your sonic screwdriver will work on these?"

"I don't think so" replied the Doctor, "I somehow can't imagine old sexy providing me with a sonic that helps to undress women!"

"Fair point. I can't even lie down with this stupid thing on."

"Don't worry we'll only be here one night. Once I've sorted out the missing room problem, we'll be flying off again. I'll return to the TARDIS after dinner."

Clara and the Doctor walked back down the stairs to the dining room.

"Miss Montague! You have a friend, a gentleman friend!" It was Digby.

"Good evening Digby" replied the Doctor. "Miss Montague has told us all about you, but this isn't Miss Montague, this is her sister Clara."

"But she looks so similar?"

At that moment Oswin emerged.

"Miss Montague?"

The Doctor shook his head.

"This is her other sister Oswin. They are identical triplets."

At that moment Francesca emerged, followed by Clara Oswin, who spoke.

"Ah. Digby, Francesca, these are my sisters Oswin and Clara, and this is Clara's husband Dr Smith."

"A Doctor?" replied Digby. "Franny needs to see a Doctor, I think she's going mad!"

Clara Oswin and the Doctor exchanged glances.

"I don't need to see a Doctor" replied Francesca, "I'm fine!"

"Francesca, if there's something wrong" spoke Clara Oswin, I think it would be a good idea to tell Dr Smith. He may be able to help you."

"It's nothing really Miss Montague, but I've been having these terrible dreams about our former Governess coming back from the dead. The one who drowned in the pond."

"Did she say when she would be coming back?"

"When the time was right to punish me."

"Interesting" replied the Doctor. "Time to take a look at the pond. Come along Montagues!"

The four of them walked outside to take a look at the pond.

"Still frozen, just like before" commented a concerned Clara Oswin. "Doctor, what does this mean?"

"I don't know, but when history was rewritten in Trenzalore, and all you Clara fragments came back to life, maybe the Great Intelligence was brought back from the dead too. If that's the case, then we'll going to be staying here more than just tonight."

"Plenty of time for Dr and Mrs Smith to get acquainted then" whispered Oswin to Clara with a smile, before Clara glowered back at her...

* * *

**All reviews very welcome!**

**This section of the story will have a bit of a Snowmen vibe, as I like that episode a lot. Latimer, his children, Strax, Eleven plus 3 Claras sounds good to me :-)**

**Having 3 Claras, means trying to separate out their personalities a bit, I hope that's working! **


	8. We're just pretending

**A quick update as this very much part 2 to the previous chapter.**

* * *

The four of them returned into the house, to be met by Alice, who had provided some cold meat and bread for them. After they had eaten, the Doctor spoke.

"I'm returning to the TARDIS to see if I can resolve the missing room problem. I might have a look around outside, to see if I can see anything odd."

"Can we help?" asked Clara.

"Thanks, but it's early days. I might even spend the night on the TARDIS if I can get a bed there, give you a bit of peace and space tonight."

As they returned to their rooms, Clara turned to Oswin.

"See, room for myself after all!"

Inwardly though, there was a slight sense of disappointment in her heart, the room was cold, and as she lay there alone, a part of her wished the Doctor had been lying there alongside her.

Outside the house, the Doctor saw nothing untoward, so returned to the TARDIS.

"Right" he proclaimed, "I'm going to fix this, once and for all. It's time to show who's in charge around here!"

Three hours later, the Doctor, surrounded by wires and cables, as he tried to reprogram the TARDIS, was starting to wonder if his question had been answered, and not in his favour. Suddenly the TARDIS made a noise, she had given him his bedroom back. The Doctor sprang up and ran towards it, opened the door, and…

"Very funny!"

The room was there, but inside it was completely empty, apart from a bed. A bed of nails.

"I give up" he sighed, "I'm going back to the house, at least you can't remove all the furniture from there as well!"

The Doctor crept back into the house, he saw a sofa in the parlour that looked quite comfortable, then realised that it would look very strange if Alice or Captain Latimer saw him there, so had no option but to return to his guest room. He slowly opened the door, and in the darkness saw Clara asleep in the bed; he could barely make her out, but she looked so peaceful there. On the other side of the bed he saw an armchair that he could sleep on; he shut the door behind him, and in the darkness inched across the dark room, towards the chair. Step by step, nearly there…

"Aaahhhh!" he cried out as he tripped on something, and crashed to the floor.

"W-what!" exclaimed Clara as she woke up, and turned her torch on.

"Oh hello, Doctor, you ok?"

"Sorry, I er tripped on something. Your bustle I think."

"Sort out the TARDIS?"

"Sadly no, she's being a bit pig headed about this, so I'm back. I can sleep in that armchair, that's where I was heading."

"Don't be silly, get into bed."

"Oh no, I couldn't, I mean it wouldn't be right, er…"

Clara pulled back the covers, and plumped the pillow on his side.

"Don't worry I don't bite!"

"Ok, er thanks."

The Doctor removed his coat and bow tie, but kept his trousers on, and nervously got in.

"You don't snore do you Doctor?"

"I don't think so."

"Good, goodnight."

Clara kissed him on the cheek, and rolled over to face away from him, leaving the Doctor with a slight smile on his face as he lay there. Eventually he relaxed, and drifted off into an unusually deep sleep for him. On the other side of the bed, Clara lay there awake. It was very comforting having the Doctor next to her, she felt very safe and secure. Instinctively she found herself creeping nearer to him as the night passed. Eventually she too dropped off.

The Doctor woke first next morning, and to his surprise found Clara leaning right against him. He slowly removed the covers to go and use the bathroom. When he returned, Clara was awake.

"Morning Doctor, sleep well?"

"Yes thank you, though for someone so small you don't half take up a lot of the bed!"

"Well, it was er cold in here last night."

As Clara left the room to find the bathroom, she bumped into Oswin.

"Well Clara, how was the marriage bed?" Oswin smirked.

"Fine" replied Clara vaguely.

"Just fine? I mean, did he, you know what!"

"Oh yes."

"Yes?"

"Yes. He did remove his bow tie before getting into bed!"

And with that Clara walked off with a smug smile on her face.

After breakfast, the Doctor sought out Captain Latimer.

"Captain, I'm a little bit concerned about that frozen pond of yours. That's where the previous governess drowned isn't it."

"It was a terrible accident, most unpleasant."

"Has anyone else taken interest in your pond?"

"Yes, a strange man called Doctor Simeon called a few days ago, I've got his card somewhere. He said that there was something in the pond that was his, and that he would be coming back to collect it. The strange thing is, that I can recall having the same conversation with him before, yet I've never met him in my life. Most peculiar."

"The Great Intelligence Institute?"

"Yes, that was it. You're very well informed if I may say so for someone who's just arrived. Are you _sure_ we haven't spoken before?"

"Captain Latimer, I believe you and your children are in danger from what's growing in that pond. I know what his plan is, and he needs to be stopped. May I ask permission to stay here a bit longer?"

"With all due respect, I hardly know you. Why should I trust you any more than that Simeon fellow?"

"You remember both of us don't you? In your dreams. "

"Yes, but I don't understand how, none of this makes any sense. What are you, a ghost?"

"I'm definitely real."

"Wait, some of it is coming back, you, you were Miss Montague's gentleman friend! And yet you are now married to her identical sister. Sir, I beg an explanation!"

"Ah, yes, you see, I wasn't really Miss Montague's gentleman friend at that time, I was er pretending."

"So she never had a gentleman friend."

"No."

"Splendid. This is all a bit irregular, but as you are an in-law of Miss Montague, permission is granted."

The Doctor met up with the Claras outside.

"Right gang, er is gang Ok? I'm not sure what the collective noun is for several Claras, a pack of Claras, a herd of Claras?"

Clara punched him on the arm.

"Ow, ok, not herd."

"So what's the plan then?" replied Clara Oswin. "Captain Latimer told me that you are staying on. Something about keeping me happy."

"Yes, I asked Latimer if we could stay on, as Simeon has been around to look at the pond, and I don't like the look of this. We need to talk to Vastra first, and get her help. Are you free?"

"I need to be back within the hour, as today they're learning Geography. The glories of the British Empire."

"That should me ample time, come along soufflés. Oh, by the way, I haven't told Latimer about who we really are yet, he's knows something's up but I felt it better not to confuse him any further at this stage."

"Lead the way Dr and Mrs Smith" replied Oswin with a smile.

Once they reached Vastra's house, Strax let them in.

"Madame Vastra, may introduce to you Dr and Mrs Smith, Miss Montague and her sister Oswin Montague."

"Strax, it's only outside that we have to pretend" exclaimed the Doctor

"Ah yes, it's quite confusing this. Are you and the boy married or not?"

"No, we are not married! We're just pretending."

"Then why are you still holding hands?"

"Um, we're trying to stay in character aren't we Clara."

"Yes dear" Clara replied with a smile on her face.

* * *

**All reviews very welcome**

**Quite a fluffy chapter that one, with more than a hint of whouffle :-)**


	9. You're not his wife

**The story continues with the Doctor talking to Vastra about Doctor Simeon...**

* * *

"Good morning Doctor" spoke Vastra. "I see you have three Claras now."

"Ah yes, this one is Oswin, she's the one who rescued me from the Dalek Asylum."

"When you tried to make a bargain with the universe, saving the world to let her live, I imagine you never expected you'd end up with so many Claras in return. I think you owe the universe something in return now."

"Well yes, er possibly" mumbled the Doctor. "But then I've been saving the universe now for 2000 years, that's a lot of Claras I've earned." He smiled.

"A fascinating thought. I am happy with just one Jenny. "

"I would have been happy with just one Clara of course. Madame Vastra, what do you know about Doctor Simeon and his Institute? In the aborted timeline he tried to take over the world using snowmen and the ice governess from the pond, and I fear he is about to try the same trick again."

"I have been keeping an eye on him, but so far nothing has happened. We have had no snow for two weeks, though it is getting colder now and more snow is expected soon."

"I believe you have had Strax monitoring the frozen pond. Has he discovered anything that might help my investigation?"

"I thought you weren't investigating anything sir?" interrupted Strax.

"Well I am now" the Doctor mumbled.

"So far nothing to report, but I happy to be of assistance in your _investigation_" Strax sniggered.

"Well it's time I checked out Simeon's institute. The good thing about this _investigation_ is that I've done most of it before; I just need to retrace my steps and cut out the errors, such as Clara Oswin dying. To lose Clara once would be unfortunate, to lose her twice would be careless!"

"We'll continue to monitor events" replied Vastra. "Where can I find you?"

"We're staying at Captain Latimer's house as Miss Montague's relatives, a long story. Come along soufflés."

The four of them left to walk to Simeon's Institute.

"You wait here" the Doctor instructed the Claras, "I won't be very long, and can't take the chance of you getting stuck, when squeezing through windows and along tight passages. Victorian women's fashion isn't very compatible with secret investigating."

"Oh yes I remember now" replied Clara Oswin, "That was when I got stuck in the window, then fell on top of you after you pulled me out; we wouldn't want that to happen again would we!"

The Doctor sighed.

"I need to be getting back anyway, mustn't be late for Digby and Francesca."

Clara Oswin departed, leaving Clara and Oswin alone.

"This is most annoying" moaned Clara, "I hate these clothes."

"Agreed, these clothes are a terrible restriction, there must be something else we can wear, something that's not too shocking for Victorian morals, but less restrictive."

"I'm sure the TARDIS has other clothes we can wear, seeing that it looks like we'll be here for a while. We can go back once the Doctor returns."

The Doctor meanwhile had broken into Simeon's Institute. At this stage he didn't want his presence revealed, so he hid in an adjacent room, not wanting to be detected by the snow globe. He watched through an open door as Simeon approached it.

"Is everything ready?" boomed the snowglobe.

"Yes, the first stage starts tomorrow morning with the first wave of snowmen around London. The following night the ice lady shall rise up from the pond. Nothing can stop us this time."

"And how have we been given a second chance?"

"I don't know, but I won't pass this one up."

The Doctor crept out again and found Clara and Oswin.

"The attack of giant snowmen will start tomorrow morning, followed by the ice governess tomorrow night."

"Giant snowmen?" replied Oswin. "That doesn't sound too scary."

"They're made of telepathic snow that mirrors thoughts. Oh, and they'll eat you."

"Oh."

"I need my TARDIS, I'll bring her into the house, hide her in our bedroom. Will have to do it quietly of course."

"Well Clara and I need to go back to the TARDIS anyway, get some new clothes, these ones are horribly impractical."

"And uncomfortable too. Quite fancy a bath as well."

"Fine. There's not much we can do at the moment, but everything will get interesting tomorrow."

The three of them went to warn Vastra about what was going to happen, before returning to the TARDIS. The Doctor fired up the TARDIS and moved it into his bedroom in Captain Latimer's house.

Latimer heard this strange noise and ran into the children's room where Clara Oswin was teaching them.

"Miss Montague, what was that frightful noise?"

"I do not know Captain Latimer, but I suspect it was the factory down the road. These modern industrialists have no respect for everybody else."

"You're probably right, you are woman of such wisdom for someone so pre...young; I must write a letter to my MP in the morning."

Latimer walked out of the room satisfied. Clara Oswin of course knew very well what the noise was…

Meanwhile, on the TARDIS as the Doctor investigated ways of defeating the Ice Governess, Clara and Oswin were busy trying to find more comfortable and slimline dresses to wear. Satisfied they returned to the console.

"I'm taking a bath now" spoke Clara. "I fancy a nice long soak. The bathrooms are still here aren't they?"

"Oh yes, there's only one thing old sexy hates more than paradoxes, it's smelly paradoxes!"

"Good" added Oswin, "I'll take a shower while we're here."

Oswin was out of the shower and ready quite quickly, whereas Clara lazed in the bath for much longer. She was feeling in a good mood, and had a long soak in her favourite bath oil, as she wanted to be fragrant for that night. Not that anything would happen of course. Thus when the Doctor and Oswin announced they were going downstairs to relax before dinner she paid little attention.

As the Doctor and Oswin got downstairs they were greeted by Captain Latimer."

"Ah, Dr and Mrs Smith, you must join me for a drink before we dine."

The Doctor looked a bit startled.

"No, I mean er yes, it's just that…"

"What my husband means" interrupted Oswin "Is that we are grateful for your hospitality, but don't want to put you out."

Oswin then held his hand, and smiled at him.

"Oh, er yes "continued the Doctor.

Over sherries, the Doctor explained to Latimer about his fears, and without giving too much detail away, suggested that things might get nasty the next day, and that everyone should stay indoors. As he was finishing, Clara came through the door, and saw the Doctor and Oswin, sitting hand in hand.

"Ah Miss Oswin, do come in" exclaimed Captain Latimer. "Dr and Mrs Smith are here already, do have a sherry."

Clara looked aghast at the Doctor and Oswin, the Doctor looking sheepish and apologetic in return, while Oswin looked smug. There was nothing she could do though, that wouldn't expose the truth about who they all really were. Once dinner was announced, and Latimer had gone through first, Clara confronted Oswin.

"You're not his wife!" Clara whispered in an angry tone.

"Neither are you. You were just pretending, and so am I!"

Later Clara Oswin joined them, and was puzzled that Clara and Oswin seemed to have swapped roles, but said nothing. Instead, over dinner Clara watched on, as she saw Oswin holding the Doctor's hand, wiping food from the corner of his mouth, and snuggling close to him, as he recounted fantastical stories about how they met and got married. After coffee had been served, and while she and Clara Oswin were talking to Latimer, Oswin stood up.

"We thank you kindly for your most generous hospitality tonight Captain Latimer, but it's been a busy day, and I fear my husband will be up early tomorrow with all this ghastly business with the snow, so I think it's time to turn in for the night. Isn't it dear?"

"Er yes" replied a sheepish Doctor.

"We've enjoyed your company tonight" replied Latimer. "Let's hope things aren't as bad as you fear tomorrow. Goodnight Doctor and Mrs Smith."

"Goodnight everyone "replied the Doctor nervously, as Oswin led him out of the room, a broad smile on her face, watched by the devastated Clara.

Soon after Clara also returned upstairs. Hearing female giggles from 'their' bedroom, she thought about bursting in and confronting the Doctor, but what would be the point? The Doctor had clearly chosen Oswin, and there was nothing she could do about it. Instead she entered Oswin's room, got undressed and into the single bed, where she thought about all she and the Doctor had been through, and her fears that the Doctor would prefer her fragments to her.

"_You'll always be special to me. You'll always be my favourite Clara."_

How shallow those words now seemed. Heartbroken, she cried out tears all night.

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**Thank you for the reviews. **

**Poor Clara, the next chapter will reveal what really happened that night...**


	10. Clara's tears

**A quick update, as this is very much part 2 to the previous chapter, which I left with a heartbroken Clara, and Oswin in the Doctor's bedroom...**

* * *

"Can you help me out of this corset Doctor" asked Oswin. "These Victorian garments take forever to remove."

"Ok" replied the Doctor, who helped undo the garment, while bashfully looking away as much as possible as more flesh was exposed.

Eventually the garment was off. By the time Oswin had fully removed the corset and bustle, and was in her nightwear, the Doctor was already in bed.

"Are you going to bed with your trousers on?"

"Yes. Oswin, what you did tonight was very cruel on Clara. I feel terrible with what we've put her through."

"Well, I don't see why she should have all the fun! Besides, it's only for one night anyway, well unless you enjoy it too much."

A look of panic appeared on the Doctor's face.

"No need to look so terrified! Besides we're identical, therefore you need to share yourself around between us, it's only fair."

"Oh god" mumbled the Doctor.

"I mean, you and Clara, clearly you fancy each other, and well I share the same feelings for you that Clara does."

"Oswin, nothing has happened between us, I swear."

"Really? But why? What's holding you back?"

"On my side, fear of pain; I've had my heart broken before, many times and it never gets any easier, as I'm 2000 years old and will watch any human I care about grow old and die."

"I'm sorry Doctor, it must be hard, the number of people you must have seen die. To be honest, I wasn't expecting anything naughty to happen tonight, but it's cold and lonely in that other room, and I wanted to spend a bit of time with you, alone. You're such a fascinating man."

Oswin started stroking the Doctor on the cheek.

"Please don't do that Oswin."

"Sorry, don't you like it."

"On the contrary, I like it too much; resisting you is hard enough as it is. I couldn't do anything behind Clara's back, after all we've been through, it would feel like betrayal, even if it was with one of her fragments."

"I understand. What about with both of us, would a threesome be ok?"

The Doctor's eyes sprang open in shock.

Meanwhile in the next room, Clara was getting a fitful night's sleep, sleeping for a short while before waking up, shedding a few more tears, then eventually drifting off again, waking up and crying again in a constant cycle, as she thought about what had been between her and the Doctor, and what would now never happen, and whether it was her fault or not. Maybe she was too reserved, trying to deny her feelings, but how could the Doctor just push her aside like that? After all they'd been through she sobbed. And betrayed by one of her fragments too!

* * *

Doctor Simeon had planned to wait until the morning to launch the Snowmen, but was too excited to sleep, thus he got up in the early hours to start the process. In truth he was a bit disappointed with the results, the Snowmen was much smaller and weaker than he had been expecting, something he put down to teething troubles.

At some point in the night, the Doctor woke up, as he never needed much sleep. He opened the curtains to take a look outside, and he saw it was snowing, and that Snowmen had appeared, but that these Snowmen were much smaller than the ones he recalled from before. Puzzled, he decided to take a cautious look outside, so put on some clothes and quietly crept out of the room.

Outside though, he was immediately distracted by the sound of crying coming from Oswin's room. Clara! The sound of Clara's tears was a dagger through his heart, his impossible girl was clearly distraught.

The Doctor slumped down on the floor outside. Clara had been concerned that she would be pushed aside by her fragments, and look what had happened. His Clara, his impossible girl, who had saved him so many times, his perfect Companion, would have seen the evening and night with Oswin as confirmation of all her fears, and was clearly in deep despair. He wanted to rush into the room and hold her, to tell her everything would be all right, that nothing had happened between him and Oswin, and that she was so so important to him, but why should she believe him, after what she had seen with her eyes. And with that, the Doctor too shed tears of pain and despair.

Eventually, the Doctor recovered some composure and remembered the threat outside. He walked down the stairs and looked outside, it was raining! All the snowmen were melting, he rushed outside and so was the pond. Then he tasted the rain, salt water. It wasn't rain, it was tears. And then it all made sense! First time round it had been the tears of a family on Christmas Day as Clara Oswin died, this time it was the tears of him and Clara, a force so powerful that it destroyed the Snowmen and Ice Governess.

In a mixture of elation and horror, the Doctor bounded back into the house and up to his bedroom, waking up Oswin as he bounded in.

"Just off for a short trip, back soon" he exclaimed to Oswin as he ran into the TARDIS and set it on course for Simeon's lair, leaving behind a puzzled Oswin, and waking up Captain Latimer, who once again cursed at the factory owners.

He arrived at Simeon's Institute, to see a distraught Simeon prostrate in front of a melted snowglobe.

"Where did you come from?" he exclaimed. "It's ruined, my life work gone, what have you done?"

"I think you had better find a new interest, as your previous one is snow good! Ok, that wasn't very good, and got the icy response it deserved, icy! I like that one, er sorry."

"I don't know who you are, but get out of here!"

The Doctor returned to the house, but this time parked outside, as he knew that the snowmen posed no threat. This time Latimer saw him arrive, and finally realised what that noise was, even if he had no idea what was going on. Once he got inside Latimer addressed him.

"I think you owe me an explanation, I just saw you arrive in that blue box, but that's impossible. And what's with these melted snowmen everywhere? Where did they come from?"

Inside the Doctor saw the children sitting with Clara Oswin, and sitting at opposite ends of the room a sombre looking Clara and a guilty looking Oswin.

"Captain Latimer taste the rain."

"Are you mad, why the devil would I want to taste rain."

"It's important."

"Oh all right then…it's salty, that can't be right!"

"That's not rain, those are tears. Tears in this household last night, tears that melted the snowmen, melted the frozen ice governess in the pond and destroyed Doctor Simeon's plans."

"But how can tears do all that?"

"This house and the pond were critical for his whole scheme, as an ice woman was being cultivated in your pond, based on your last governess. This house was critical for the whole scheme, the snow however, instead of mirroring the master snowglobe in Simeon's laboratory instead mirrored the wave of tears here last night."

"I don't understand any of this, whose tears?"

"Mine. And Clara's. Clara, hearing you cry broke my heart. I promise you nothing happened between me and Oswin; I would never do anything to hurt you. "

Clara looked up, but said nothing.

"Oswin, but you were with Clara yesterday, not Oswin?"

"Captain Latimer, I think we owe you an explanation."

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**Thank you for the reviews, I hope you like the resolution to this subplot, well I liked it anyway :-)**


	11. Miss Montague is this true?

**Not many comments, but I was rather pleased with the resolution in the last chapter, a nice _homage_ of the climax of The Snowmen IMHO :-)**

**After saving the day (inadvertently) The Doctor is about to give Captain Latimer an explanation about what's been going on...**

* * *

"I'm afraid it's all a bit timey-wimey" spoke the Doctor.

"Oh for God sake's man, speak English!" exclaimed Captain Latimer.

"Sorry. My name is The Doctor, I'm not human; I'm a 2000 years old time lord, and time traveller."

"That's impossible!"

"That blue box outside, that's my time machine, my spaceship. Oh, and Clara over there, she's my Companion and Impossible Girl." He pointed to the sombre Clara sitting in the corner

The Doctor then went on to describe who he was, and how Clara had jumped into his timestream to save him, generating a thousand fragments all dying to save him.

"I've no idea what you are talking about, but, but does that mean, Miss Montague here, she's a fragment of your Clara?"

The Doctor nodded.

"That explains a lot, she's a remarkable woman, I've never met anyone like her. But how come she's still alive?"

"History got rewritten, and as a result the Clara fragments no longer died saving me, and all seem to have come back to life. You remember some aspects of the original events, as in your mind you can recall meeting both me and Doctor Simeon. That was what happened first time round."

"Ah yes, you said you were Miss Montague's gentlemen friend, and that you'd been kissing!"

Clara's eyes opened wide at that comment.

"Er, not sure why I said that. It was easier than revealing the truth."

"You also said that she was actually a barmaid called Clara? Miss Montague is this true?"

"I'm afraid so Captain Latimer" replied Clara Oswin, "Clara Oswin Oswald to be precise. I'm sorry Digby, Francesca, I'd hoped you wouldn't find out about my background."

"Clara Oswin, Miss Montague" added The Doctor "Also remembered what happened to her, and came back to find me. She's been travelling with me for a couple of days, but due to the joys of time travel, in terms of normal time, she's not been away at all."

"You've been travelling with this man?"

"Yes Captain Latimer, but as he said, I've not been away at all in real time. It was amazing, though I had to share a bed with his Clara, as there was nowhere else to sleep."

"Hmm interesting" mumbled Latimer. "So your Clara Doctor is the original, I take it she's your wife?"

"No, we're not married."

"You're not married, and you've been sharing a bed with this woman in my house!"

"Oh, don't worry, I kept my trousers on."

"And then last night, you spent the night with the other woman, who pretended to be Clara. What sort of man are you?"

"Oh, I kept my trousers on last night as well."

"That was my fault Captain Latimer" interrupted Oswin. "After you mistook me for Clara, I thought it would be fun to swap places with Clara and be his wife for the evening. And the night. I couldn't help myself, but nothing happened last night I swear, the Doctor has too strong feelings for you Clara to do anything like that behind your back."

Oswin looked at Clara who was unsure about whether to believe her or not.

"Oswin is another of Clara's fragments" explained the Doctor. "Pretending the three of them were identical sisters seemed like an easier explanation to sell than the fragments one."

"Identical triplets did seem a bit unusual. So what happened outside then, what are all those melted snowmen?"

"First time round, they and the ice governess were how Doctor Simeon and the Great Intelligence were going to conquer the world, the ice governess was a perfect replica of a human, your former governess, the really nasty one" the Doctor looked towards Digby and Francesca who grimaced.

"Clara, Miss Montague that is, died on Christmas day" the Doctor continued, "And it was the tears shed here for her which destroyed the snowmen and ice governess, there's nothing more powerful than children crying on Christmas Day."

"So what happened last night?"

"After time was reset, so was Doctor Simeon and his plans, as he was also brought back to life. He relaunched his plans last night, with the first wave of snowmen. The ice governess would have followed on from the frozen pond, but both were destroyed by the tears of Clara and myself. If you don't mind, that's something that I'd rather not go into at this moment."

"So you came here because of the threat from Simeon?" continued Latimer.

"Er, no, we came here because my TARDIS, er that's my spaceship, had hidden all the bedrooms, and we needed somewhere to sleep. With myself and the three soufflés, sorry Claras, one single bed was getting a bit cramped."

"What, you claim to be a 2000 year old time traveller, and yet your spaceship hides its bedrooms!"

"Well, she's quite temperamental. You're welcome to come and take a look."

"After all that's happened, which makes no sense at all, I feel I must see this ship, it's a fine illusion if nothing else. Come along children, let's see this trick up close."

The Doctor led everyone towards the TARDIS, slowly opened the doors, and beckoned everyone in…

"That's impossible!"

"It's bigger on the inside!"

"What sort of trick is this, how are you doing this, is it with mirrors?"

"No, it's real" replied the Doctor. "Let me show you round."

The Doctor led the stunned Latimer family around the TARDIS, they gasped at the vastness of the TARDIS, the endless corridors, the swimming pool and kitchen.

"Here's Clara's bedroom, the TARDIS had a fit and shrunk it down, see how small it is, it used to be massive. "

The Doctor opened the door.

"Oh."

Inside the room was massive, with a gigantic and palatial four poster bed in the middle, surrounded by gorgeous furnishings."

"Strange, let's see what the guest rooms now look like."

Again, once he opened the doors, they found beautiful, welcoming rooms.

"Very strange" mused the puzzled Doctor.

"If these rooms didn't exist before Doctor" laughed Latimer, "Clearly someone wanted you to stop by and pay us a visit, and it's just as well you did!"

"Someone indeed" smiled the Doctor. "Or she got lucky."

Eventually they left the TARDIS and returned inside Captain Latimer's House.

"You have something very special out there Doctor" spoke Latimer. "I can see why my Clara, Miss Montague as I prefer to call her, is captivated by your impossible machine and the prospect of time travel, but there's something I need to say to her before she leaves me, as I'm sure she will now."

Captain Latimer turned to Clara Oswin Oswald.

"Clara, I can see why you want to travel with The Doctor, it must be an amazing experience to travel everywhere in time, and with two identical clones of yourself too. I don't want to hold you back, but I just wanted to tell you how wonderful you've been, a brilliant governess to my children, and for someone so young, so wise and intelligent. Since my darling wife Elizabeth died five years ago, you're the first person who's made me feel happy again, I know I'm not good with my feelings, but it's hard to open up with someone as pretty as you."

Clara Oswin was overcome by hearing Captain Latimer speak like this, while tears rolled down the cheeks of Digby and Francesca as they faced losing their governess.

"Clara, Miss Montague, I'm a silly old fool, but I couldn't go to my grave without knowing that I had at least asked the question, but will you marry me?"

* * *

**A nice cliffhanger to end on, and good to include some romance, even if it was probably not the romance you were expecting, as Paul McGann might have said :-)**

**I deliberately didn't include all the explanation that The Doctor gave Latimer, as it would have just repeated what was said in earlier chapters and thus would be a bit repetitive to read (and write!)**


	12. I don't know if I'm ready yet

**The last chapter finished with Captain Latimer proposing to Clara Oswin Oswald...**

* * *

"Captain Latimer" replied Clara Oswald, "I don't know what to say, I'm deeply honoured by your kind words."

"I'm sorry to shock you like this."

"It was always my dream to leave my humble world behind, to work with children, and be a governess, and I couldn't have met nicer children than yours."

"Thank you."

"After meeting the Doctor however, everything changed, he opened my eyes to another world, an exotic world where nothing made sense, and everything was exciting, and he wanted me to travel with him."

"I understand Miss Montague, sorry Clara."

"Meeting him again was amazing, and the brief trips to the future mind boggling. However, he already has his Clara, the original Clara, whereas here I see two wonderful children who need me, and a man, a man of courage and honour, who has experienced pain in his life, but has a kind heart and a handsome smile. Every day with you three is an adventure."

Clara Oswin turned to Captain Latimer.

"It would be my honour to be your wife."

"Oh Clara, I promise to make you happy, I know I can be a bit cantankerous at times, but with you I am happy and at peace. I can't offer you the adventures that the Doctor can, but I'm sure you won't regret your decision."

Latimer knelt in front of Clara Oswin.

"This is my late wife's engagement ring, it was also the ring that my mother wore; I would be honoured if you would wear it."

"Oh Captain Latimer, it's beautiful."

And with that they kissed.

It was Oswin who broke the silence.

"I do love a wedding, can I be a bridesmaid!"

"Of course Oswin" Clara Oswin laughed.

"Brilliant. It does mean that the Doctor loses one of his soufflés, but I'm sure Clara and I can compensate for the loss, eh." She winked at Clara, who was still in turmoil, but delighted that her fragment had found happiness and stability.

"I trust you three will stay for dinner tonight" beamed Latimer. "This deserves a celebration!"

"We would be delighted to" replied the Doctor. "I've got a bit more investigating to do to clear up the remains of the snowmen mystery, and now my TARDIS is back on side, we can move back there and give you some more privacy and space in the house."

After congratulating the happy couple, the Doctor, Clara and Oswin walked outside where they bumped into Vastra, Jenny and Strax who had hurried over after seeing the melted snowmen everywhere.

"Doctor, these snowmen have all melted, and so has the pond" spoke Vastra. "What happened?"

"Wonderful news" interjected Oswin before the Doctor could reply. "Clara's getting married!"

"Great news boy" replied Strax, "I'm sure Clara and the Doctor will be very happy together."

"No NO!" replied the Doctor "_We're_ not getting married!"

"Off already, that didn't last long, cloning is a much better system, avoiding all this strange and yukky love business."

"No Strax, it's not me, it's Captain Latimer who's marrying governess Clara."

"Wonderful news Doctor" continued Vastra, "But what about the snowmen?"

The Doctor then explained what had happened, and how Simeon's plans had been foiled.

"That is splendid news. We will continue to keep an eye on Simeon, just in case. In the meantime, I think you and Miss Clara have unfinished business, we shall leave you to sort things out."

After the Paternosters left, Oswin also made a polite exit, returning to the TARDIS, to "wash her hair" leaving the Doctor and Clara alone.

"There's a bench in the garden, shall we go there Clara? I believe the children are inside."

They sat there together.

"Doctor, why were you with Oswin that evening?"

"When Oswin and I came down to dinner before you, Captain Latimer mistook Oswin for you, an easy mistake to make. Before I could say anything, Oswin continued as if she was Mrs Smith, there was nothing I could say without creating suspicion."

"But, you then allowed her into our room?"

"I didn't know what to do, I didn't want to create a scene, after all she's a version of you, she has feelings as well. I did feel terrible about the whole situation though."

"I was devastated that you could push me aside so easily. I know I've been holding them back, but I do have feelings for you Doctor, it's just that I don't know if I feel ready to drop my guard. It's dangerous, and complicated, and I don't know if I'm ready yet."

"I understand. I myself have suffered too much pain to allow the possibility of my heart to be broken again, unless I am 100% sure."

"And when will that be Doctor?"

The Doctor gently stroked Clara on the cheek.

"You'll be the first to know Clara."

"And what about Oswin?"

"Oswin has similar feelings, but is less reserved about it."

"So what happened?"

"Nothing, as I said I kept my trousers on. I won't pretend it wasn't hard though, you saw what happened to the Starship Alaska, Oswin usually gets what she wants. Clara, you have to understand, you are special to me, so so special, and when I left the room to investigate the snowmen outside, and heard the tears from your room, I was devastated, and broke down in tears as well, when I realised the pain I had caused you. It was our combined tears that destroyed the snowmen and Simeon's plans."

The Doctor hugged Clara.

"You have to believe me Clara, that you will always be my Impossible Girl, however many fragments emerge. Never ever feel insecure, or that you are in competition with your other fragments."

"Doctor, I know what you're saying, but I don't know if I could recover if I lost you to another version of me. I know there will be other fragments out there, I guess I will have to find a way of coping." Clara's eyes started getting moist again.

The two returned to the TARDIS, the Doctor wrapping his arms around Clara to comfort her as they slowly walked along. Inside, the exhausted Clara decided to take a nap, and was looking forward to sleeping in her nice bed again. Sadly for her, old sexy was feeling mean, and had swapped her bed for a lumpy single bed again. Clara though was too tired to give the TARDIS the abuse she deserved, and after quickly removing the outer layers of clothing she had on, collapsed onto the bed where she quickly fell asleep.

After Clara emerged from her sleep, the Doctor spoke to her.

"Clara, you deserve a treat, and you're going to love this place, the Sea of Troxipan. Beautiful clear water, dazzling fish of all colours swimming to and fro, I can't wait. Here we are, open the door...and... That's not right!"

"What's wrong Doctor?"

"It's full of, no it can't be, that's impossible, but they are. The sea is full of soufflés! And they're swimming around!"

"Soufflés can't swim!"

"These ones can. When history got rewritten at Trenzalore, and all your fragments came back to life, all your soufflés came back to life too! They all got a second chance to live. Look."

"They're ugly looking things."

"That's because they're your soufflés, some are burnt, some didn't rise, while others sagged. It's your fault they're not very attractive."

"Doctor, the soufflés are rising out of the water, they're now flying, they're going to attack us. Doctor, HELP! DOCTOR!"

Clara woke, to find the Doctor next to her in her bedroom, holding her hands.

"Are you ok, as you seemed to be having a nightmare? I could hear your screaming from the console room."

"Oh sorry Doctor, just had a very strange dream, about oh never mind."

"You're awake now, Oswin is making us some lunch, a surprise. I'm sure a bit of food will make you feel better. Oh, and sorry about the bed, I'll have a word."

The Doctor and Clara walked to the kitchen, where a proud looking Oswin greeted them.

"Ah, there you are! Been doing a bit of cooking, and this time I think I've cracked it."

Clara looked worried.

"Take a look at this, perfect in every way, at long last I am finally _soufflé girl_!"

Clara screamed and ran back to her room, leaving a baffled Oswin and Doctor behind.

"Was it something I said?"

* * *

**After the emotional dialogue earlier in the chapter, it was good to end with something sillier, which came out of a conversation I had with _TimeLordPrime _about there being plenty of soufflés for the Doctor in the sea :-)**

**All comments very welcome**


	13. I don't even know if we're um compatible

**Resuming the story, Clara was being haunted by soufflés...**

* * *

A little later on Clara emerged from her room.

"You ok Clara?" asked the Doctor, "You ran off really suddenly?"

"Fine now. How's your testing of the snowmen remains going? Seen anything you need to worry about?"

"No, it's all melting normal snow now, well water. Dinner is at 7, and this time we're all going together. No mistaken identities tonight."

"Where's Oswin?"

"She's with Clara Oswin and the children. I hate to imagine what she'll be teaching them though!"

Clara walked outside, where she bumped into Strax, who was still monitoring the house and pond.

"Well boy, are you married to the Doctor this time or not? I can never keep up with your marital status."

"No I'm not married to the Doctor" Clara laughed, "Not in real life, and now we no longer have to pretend to be a married couple in front of Captain Latimer, not in pretend life either. "

"I understand you are having problems with your clones, if you want I can obliterate all the other Claras. They're talking to the weak and puny human children inside, laser monkeys would soon sort them out."

"Er, no need for that. I think I can work out how to live with Oswin, and Clara Oswin is leaving to get married anyway."

"But what happens if he meets another clone, another fleshy boy slobbering over the Doctor in the TARDIS."

"You'll have my permission to use the projectile acid fish then."

Clara then went off to speak to the Latimer children; she enjoyed her time with them, as a former nanny and current teacher she, like her fragments, had a natural affinity with children, and could understand why Clara Oswin would become so attached to them, a bond so strong that she would give up travelling with the Doctor. While the children were with Oswin, Clara spoke to Clara Oswin.

"Congratulations on your upcoming wedding, I'm really pleased for you."

"Thank you Clara, it's hard to leave the Doctor, but I have a lot to leave him for, a noble man, and two wonderful children. With my humble background, I'm lucky to marry a man of such status."

"I'm sure you will be very happy together."

"I hope so. I don't know whether the Doctor will miss me or not, ok he'll miss me a little bit I suppose, but he's got you and you're the most important one of us. That's obvious.

"Oh I wouldn't say so."

"Of course you're his favourite, it's obvious in his eyes. I'll miss the Doctor and having you and Oswin around, but I'll still be in touch with Madame Vastra no doubt, so I'm sure she'll keep my up to date with any big news. Wedding invites, christenings that sort of thing." Clara Oswin smiled.

"Whoah, you're jumping ahead a bit there, if you're suggesting what I think you're suggesting! I mean, I don't even know if we're um compatible in that sense, him being Time Lord and all that."

"All I'm saying, is that, if you're not willing to take the next step, somebody else might, there's only so much temptation that can be dangled before the mouse takes the bait. There's a lot of Claras out there."

* * *

This time the Doctor, Clara and Oswin all arrived for dinner at the same time, the Doctor making sure it was clear that he was with Clara. There, they were greeted by a beaming Captain Latimer.

"Doctor, it's all confirmed; we're getting married on the 15th August 1863. I trust you will all be here for what will be a very special day!"

"It would be an honour Captain Latimer. I do like a wedding, especially if there's dancing."

The meal was a happy occasion. After the main course was finished, Latimer made a brief announcement while Clara Oswin disappeared into the kitchen.

"Clara Oswin has got a surprise for us, something she's been preparing in the kitchen."

Clara looked slightly concerned as a triumphant Clara Oswin poked her head through the door.

"As Captain Latimer said, I've been doing a bit of baking, trying to perfect a recipe that I've been struggling with."

Clara felt a horrible sinking feeling in her stomach…

"Indeed, it usually goes wrong, but this time it's come out to perfection."

Please no, please no Clara mumbled to herself, as she held her face in her hands…

"I am proud to serve to you…my Battenberg Cake."

"YES!" Clara shrieked, before hiding her face with embarrassment.

"Are you ok" whispered a concerned Doctor.

"Sorry, er fine. Battenberg cake, hmmmm yummy!" Clara sank into her seat, and tried to hide away from everyone.

"Gosh, well I hope the cake lives up to Miss Clara's expectation" replied a slightly puzzled Latimer. "I have never tried Battenberg cake before, but it certainly looks delightful."

The cake was indeed nice, though Clara wasn't very hungry and only nibbled at a small piece. After her outburst, she just wanted to slink back to the TARDIS, and was happy when the evening ended.

Back in the TARDIS, she returned straight away to her room, changed into her nightdress and got into her cramped single bed. There she lay awake, pondering so many questions in her mind.

Clara Oswin had hinted that maybe Clara should take her relationship with the Doctor a step further, and she loved children, but bearing the Doctor a child, would it even be biologically possible? And did she really want to get so close to him anyway, when in 50 years' time she would be old and frail, while he would look identical, and risk missing out on normal human life? She didn't want to rush into such a decision, but at the same time with Oswin or whichever Clara turned up next in the background, if she stood back and waited, what if they stepped into the void? How heart-breaking would that be? Clara had experienced terrible pain the night before, and she couldn't bear to go through that ever again. Maybe it would be better to leave the TARDIS, to get the heartbreak out of the way on her terms and give him up now.

Clara's thoughts were interrupted by a loud TWANG as suddenly several springs in the bed gave way, one of which poked straight into her posterior.

"Right, that's it you cow, I've had enough!" she exclaimed as she jumped out of bed.

Clara stomped out of her bedroom to find the Doctor. She couldn't find him in the console room, so she tried his bedroom. Knocking on the door produced no response, so she tried opening it, and was surprised to see him asleep under the covers, as he never normally needed much sleep. The noise of her opening the door woke him up.

"Whagh, er what's the problem!" he exclaimed with a worried look on his face.

"The stupid cow has now given me a broken bed, several springs just snapped, in a most painful manner. Move over, I'm sharing your bed tonight."

"You what, no er I mean I'm not sure it's a good idea, um."

"Stop rambling, and move up. I'm not spending the night hunting for another room. You should be used to sharing a bed after these last two nights anyway."

Clara jumped under the covers. Ah this was nice, very comfortable. Then suddenly a thought entered her mind.

"Doctor?"

"Yes Clara."

"Are you wearing any clothes?"

"No."

"WHAT, YOU'RE NAKED!"

"Well yes, funnily enough I wasn't expecting to be sharing my bed tonight, otherwise I would have kept my bow tie on!"

"Ah."

"It's not as if you haven't seen me naked before."

"True, but this is a bit different, I mean this is kind of intimate. At least you don't snore."

"_You_ do."

"I do _not_ snore!"

"Yes you do, though not as much as Oswin does."

"Better stick to sleeping with me instead of her then, eh Doctor."

Clara grimaced at the ambiguity of that last statement.

"Goodnight Doctor, I'll try to be quiet."

"Goodnight Clara. And no you don't really snore, ha ha, got you going there!"

"Rotten swine! I've a good mind to suffocate you with this pillow."

"I'd only regenerate if you do that, and probably into a snorer."

"I'll let you off then. Good night Doctor."

"Good night snorer, er Clara."

* * *

**Thanks for the reviews and comments, they are much appreciated. **

**Clara has a lot to think about, hopefully the (naked) Doctor next to her will keep away the soufflé dreams :-)**


	14. That's not good news

"Thanks for taking me the Bolshoi Ballet Doctor" gushed Clara. "When I was a little girl, I always wanted to be a ballet dancer when I grew up. Sadly I never grew up enough!"

"My pleasure Clara, I've always loved the Nutcracker Suite, and you deserved a break after the stress of the last few days, so I left Oswin behind."

"Great seats in the house as well, how did you manage to get them at such short notice?"

"You can't beat the hyperspace bodyswap ticket, a shame about the two individuals who are now outside and naked, but I'm sure they can come back again another day. I don't know what your dress is like, but the gentleman really should get his dinner suit dry cleaned more often though, phew."

"My favourite part is about to start, whooah that's not right!"

"What's wrong?"

"No!"

"But everyone likes this bit, Dance of the Sugar Plum Soufflé."

"That's not right, it's Dance of the Sugar Plum_ Fairy_."

"That would be silly, fairies don't exist."

"Neither do dancing soufflés! And we're right by the stage. Go away! LEAVE ME ALONE! HEEEELLLPPPP!"

Clara woke to see a worried Doctor caressing her forehead.

"Clara, what's wrong, you were having another nightmare!"

"Ooh, that wasn't good."

"I'm really worried about you, what have I put you through? I always worry that the human brain can't cope with the terrible things we see on our adventures, and then there's your fragments as well, are you remembering their adventures as well, the way they died before being brought back to life. Clara, what was it haunting you, Daleks, Cybermen, Whispermen?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"Either way, I need to care for you. You're not sleeping alone until you stop having these terrible dreams."

"Ok, er thanks. I hope the TARDIS doesn't mind. "

"She'll have to accept it. I think you need to go somewhere nice and relaxing, somewhere you can recuperate for a bit as clearly you're not your usual self at the moment, and I know such a place!" the Doctor beamed. "It'll be a nice break before the wedding."

"Where have you got in mind" asked Clara warily.

"This lovely paradise planet, Qudochi. Gorgeous beaches, crystal clear water with multi coloured fish swimming around, I haven't been there for a while but my previous Companions have always loved it, especially the local cocktails."

"And there won't be soufflés in the water?"

"Soufflés? You _really_ need a holiday Clara."

"Sorry, I meant, er sharks, yes that's it, are there any sharks in the water?"

"No, none at all."

"Well it sounds great, when can we go?"

"Well we need to say goodbye to Captain Latimer, Clara Oswin and the children first, then I don't see any reason to hang around here, seeing that the wedding isn't until August. Must get up, I don't normally sleep in this long."

The Doctor got out of bed, and went to the bathroom. Still naked, as Clara was reminded as she watched him walk away. Clara dozed off again for a brief soufflé free sleep, and only got up once the Doctor had finished, so that the two of them left his bedroom together, where they passed by a smiling Oswin.

"The stupid TARDIS broke my bed in the middle of the night, so I had to share the Doctor's" Clara explained to the smirking Oswin.

"Clara has been having terrible nightmares; I'm really worried about her. She'll be sleeping next to me from now on until she gets better" added the Doctor.

"Nice work" whispered Oswin as she walked past Clara, who gave a look of denial back, though inwardly she wasn't too unhappy with the outcome…

Later that morning the Doctor explained his plan to Captain Latimer and Clara Oswin.

"So you'll be flying off now, and coming back just before the wedding" asked Captain Latimer.

"Well you won't want me here, getting in the way. I suspect you all need a bit of normality now."

"Fair enough. "

"And it's not as if Clara and Oswin will need measuring for the bridesmaid dresses, seeing that both of them are identical to your Clara!"

"I'll miss having you all around" spoke Clara Oswin, "But it's the start of a new life for me, and a wedding is a massive undertaking to organise, so I'll have plenty on my plate. Have you ever been married before Doctor?"

"Yes. My last wedding was a simple affair though. Circumstances meant it had to be done in a hurry."

Latimer and Clara Oswin looked at him in horror.

"No, NO! It wasn't like that, she wasn't pregnant."

Latimer and Clara Oswin looked relieved.

"It was to restart time, which was disintegrating because I should have died and hadn't, and as a result history was happening all at once, and hence reality was falling apart. Once I got married I was able to die and reset time."

Everyone in the room looked completely baffled, but it was Oswin who eventually spoke

"Are you _sure_ it wasn't because she was up the duff?"

"Time travel can be a complicated business."

"So what happened to her, this wife of yours?" continued Latimer.

"She died, but was saved to a database in the largest library in the universe."

"That must have been a terrible day for you."

"It was bad, but I got to know her much better after then. Everything was complicated with River, as it all happened backwards. Happily most of my companions live their life the right way around!"

"Yes…" replied the perplexed and bewildered Captain Latimer. "The day my Elizabeth died was a dagger to my heart, but thanks to Clara Oswin here, I've found happiness again. From what I've heard about you Doctor, trouble seems to follow you around, so make sure that nothing untoward happens between and the 15th August. I don't want you missing our wedding because you're trying to do something weird out in space, or whatever it is you do."

"You have my word Captain Latimer, I'm just going to fly somewhere nice with Clara and Oswin, a relaxing holiday before we return here a couple of days before the wedding."

Clara looked to the floor, she recalled the other times the Doctor had intended to take her somewhere nice, and how that usually led to some life threatening Alien attack. This time she _really_ needed a nice quiet trip, a paradise beach, her alone with the Doctor…and Oswin.

The three of them said their goodbyes to the children who were sad to see them go, and returned to the TARDIS.

"You're going to love this place" enthused the Doctor as he walked to the console, "A perfect place to top up your tan before the wedding."

"Great" replied Oswin, "I'll get changed."

"It'll be lovely to lose these Victorian clothes" replied Clara.

As the two of them left the console, Oswin turned to Clara.

"Well, did he keep his trousers on last night?"

"No, he was undressed, as he wasn't expecting me in his bed."

"How undressed?"

"_Very_ undressed."

Oswin smiled.

"So does he have any distinguishing features, such as a mole on his back?"

"There is a mole, but it's erm a bit further down."

And with that Clara walked into her room to get changed, with a smug smile on her face.

Once Clara and Oswin had returned to the console room, now dressed in more casual summer clothes, and armed with Factor 25, the Doctor set the TARDIS in motion, and shortly afterwards it landed.

"The paradise planet of Qudochi" the Doctor exclaimed as he bounded towards the door of the TARDIS. "I don't know why I don't come here more often, it must have been… actually I can't remember how long it is since I was last here."

He opened the door, Clara bracing herself for the expected attack by Cybermen or angry Gods, but instead it was just like the Doctor had promised. Beautiful sand, crystal clear water, a paradise beach of the sort you dream about. It was going to be great here, the perfect place to relax and forget about the stresses of the last few days. Oswin wasn't too bad, Clara considered, she was sure they'd have some good fun together here, and at night the Doctor would be there to keep her safe, and scare away the er soufflés in her head.

Oswin too was looking forward to a nice holiday, the whole point of joining the Starship Alaska was to see the universe, and if there were more enticing bits of the universe than here, she would love to visit them!

Clara was taking her shoes off to take a paddle in the water, when her inner peace was shattered by a cry from Oswin.

"Look! Over there by the trees!"

"It can't be" Clara replied with dread in her voice. "Not another one!"

In the distance a brown haired woman was walking towards them and waving her hands in the air, surely it couldn't be another Clara fragment?

"That's not good news."

"Too right" Clara thought out loud, just what she needed another fragment flirting over the Doctor.

"If a fragment of you has been here, then that means something must have happened, she must have died here originally saving the Doctor."

"Oh yes, I see what you mean."

So much for the relaxing holiday…Clara sighed.

As the figure walked towards them on the beach, she was unmistakeable, the hair was big and bouffant, she was wearing an oversized pink top over lime green leggings, but the petite brown haired figure walking towards them with a look of bafflement on her face was clearly another Clara fragment.

The Doctor had been in the TARDIS while this mysterious figure was moving towards them, but emerged just as she was arriving. She spoke first.

"There's two of you, and you're me, even if you're wearing weird clothes. That's spooky. "

She then looked towards the Doctor in horror.

"Who are you? That's the Doctor's blue box, what have you done to him, what have you done with the Doctor?"

* * *

**Thanks for the reviews, they are much appreciated!**

**So much for Clara's relaxing holiday, though she should know by now that life with the Doctor is never straightforward. Though at least she'll have the Doctor nearby the next time she has some weird soufflé related dream :-)**


	15. That's quite scary actually

**The Doctor, Clara and Oswin have just met another Clara fragment...**

* * *

"I am the Doctor. Honestly."

"No" replied the mysterious Clara fragment, "I know what the Doctor looks like, and you're not him."

"There is a process called regeneration, in which I completely change my body and appearance. When you saw the Doctor, what did he look like?"

"Blonde curly hair, really loud multi coloured clothes, fairly hideous actually!"

"Ah."

"You recognise this description?"

"Yes, that was my 6th face. Not one of my more successful sartorial choices Clara."

The Doctor took the fragment by the hand.

"I'm still the same person that you saw, just many years later, 1000 years later, I lose track of the time."

"1000 years?"

"Yes, doesn't time fly when you're enjoying yourself. I presume I wasn't alone?"

"He had a girl with him. Attractive, mainly wore a bikini on the beach, didn't wear much more in the evenings for that matter."

"That was Peri."

Oswin and Clara looked at him with quizzical expressions on their faces.

"Attractive girl in a bikini eh" spoke Oswin "Very interesting. I bet you couldn't keep your hands off her Doctor."

"Well, um, in a manner of speaking."

"In a manner of speaking? I dying to find out what you two did together!" Oswin smirked.

"I may have tried to um strangle her."

"STRANGLE HER!" exclaimed Clara stepping backwards.

"It was a tricky regeneration, and to be fair it's the only time I've ever done that in one, two thousand years, which isn't a bad track record really."

"Hmm, this version of you doesn't sound very nice."

"It was a phase I was going through, and it got better. Anyway leggings girl" added the Doctor desperately trying to change the subject, "Who are you?"

"I'm Lara Coswin Oswald!"

"Something got slightly mangled in my timestream! At least you're not another Clara."

"There's nothing wrong with Clara!" exclaimed Clara poking the Doctor in the side.

"Lovely name of course, but er all these Claras and Oswins were getting a bit confusing. Lara, this is Clara Oswald, the original, while with her is Oswin Oswald. Back in Victorian London we've just left Clara Oswin Oswald."

"Ok, I see what you mean."

"There are so many lovely names out there, I wish your fragments could be named a bit more imaginatively. Isabel, Elizabeth, Jane, Brian, no not Brian."

"Funnily enough" huffed Clara, "It wasn't exactly a plan for all of us to emerge at the same time! To take over the world!"

"That's an interesting idea, an army of Claras marching on the world, sounds pretty terrifying to me! Mind you they do say an army marches on its stomach, and with your record when it comes to cooking, you'd probably starve to…" the Doctor tailed off after Clara got onto tiptoes to glare at him.

"All very interesting Doctor" interrupted Lara, "But why are we all here, how can there be an army of, er Claras?"

"A very good question Lara, and one which is best explained over a drink. Anyone fancy a local cocktail?"

"I thought you'd never ask!" replied Oswin.

The four of them walked over to a bar by the beach.

"The system here is entirely automated, and psychic. Once you've chosen what you want, it reads your mind, and the robot bartender makes your drink."

"Very clever. So how do you pay for your drinks then?" asked Oswin.

"With one of these" replied the Doctor producing a triangular piece of crystal. "The international payment crystal, the system has detected I have one of these, and will automatically deduct the cost of the drink from my balance."

"Cool. How much credit do you have?"

"Oh unlimited, it was a gift to me for saving the universe, well one of the times, certainly better than the carriage clock I got the first time. Sadly of no use on earth though, in case you were thinking of going shopping!"

"Let's get started then!"

"The menu is up there. Don't overdo it though; I can't carry all three of you back at the same time!"

"Don't listen to him" laughed Clara, "He's a complete lightweight when it comes to drinking!"

The Doctor huffed at this comment.

"So it might be us carrying _him_ back to bed then" added Oswin. "You two can remove his bow tie, I'll deal with the rest!" She smirked.

"It won't er come to that, moderation is my middle name, well it's not Keith anyway."

The four of them perused the menu. It was Oswin who decided first, and the robot whizzed into action, pouring, mixing and shaking her drink, before proudly (for a robot at least) presenting it to her.

Everyone watched as she took a first taste.

"Hmm, lovely. Are we meant to tip the barman?"

Once everyone had got a drink, they found a table underneath an exotic looking tree, covered in pink flowers.

"So Doctor" spoke Lara, "Why are there three of us, all identical?"

The Doctor explained to Lara all about himself, Trenzalore and his timestream, and how Clara had jumped into it to save him from the Great Intelligence.

"So I was born to save the Doctor then" spoke Lara, "That's quite scary actually."

"So what happened, what happened to you here?" replied the Doctor, "And what were you saving me from?"

"I've no idea."

"Eh?"

"Nothing happened. I was here, on a little vacation, the Doctor in his horrible coat arrived with his bird, they hung around for a day, then suddenly everything reset and I was alone until I saw you on the other side of the beach where the technicolour Doctor had been before."

"So you saw nothing funny then?"

"No. Should I?"

"It's just that you fragments were created to save me from the Great Intelligence; wherever he went in my timestream, a Clara fragment was created to fight him off, to reverse the changes he made. You were clearly created for something?"

"Well nothing happened."

"Do you remember any strange dreams" added Oswin returning from the bar with another drink, "Strange dreams that seemed really real."

"No, nothing springs to mind."

"So" continued the Doctor, "How did you get here?"

"Valueshuttle, the low cost space transport operator. Not very comfortable, but very cheap."

"What happened to everyone else on board?"

"They all went elsewhere, a few miles down the beach, there's a large hotel there."

"So where are you staying?"

"My tent is around the corner. I'm a student, so money is tight."

"So it's just you then, you're not with anyone?"

"No, I was meant to come here with a friend, but she wasn't well and pulled out. I'd paid for the ticket, so it seemed a shame to waste it."

"You must come and stay with us in the TARDIS. Plenty of spare bedrooms in there, well hopefully if she's in a good mood."

"Thanks. Your box though, it looks tiny, my tent is just as big!"

"It'll all make sense when you go inside. Oswin here, for example, has her own guest bedroom."

"Lara, I'm happy to share with the Doctor if you can't find a room in the TARDIS."

"I'm sure that _won't_ be necessary" interjected an indignant Clara.

"It's all very strange" pondered the Doctor. "Maybe in this instance the time reset happened before the GI had the chance to do anything? It all seems completely safe here now, I think we might as well relax and enjoy ourselves. After all, that was the whole point of coming here in the first place! Who fancies another drink?"

The rest of the evening passed very pleasantly as the four of them worked their way through the cocktail menu. Eventually the robot barman called time (something which surprised Clara, but apparently Robots has unionised themselves) and the four of them staggered back towards the TARDIS, arm in arm.

"I luv having lots o' Claras" slurred the Doctor as they reached the TARDIS, "I, the Ducktor, I am a Clara magnet, that's me. Sexy, can ya open the door, is the Ducktor."

"The Ducktor" Clara announced, "And his impobbisle girls!"

The next morning Clara woke up with a terrible headache, and a stomach that was churning like the North Sea in a Force 10 gale. She slowly opened her eyes, and recognised the purple of the Doctor's coat, oh and a stray leg, that was Oswin's and another arm, oh that was Lara's. Ah, all crashed out together in the same bed, hmm cosy. As she stirred, other bodies slowly started creaking to life.

"Lara, welcome to the TARDIS" croaked the Doctor in a weak voice. "What do you think?"

"Where's the bathroom, I think I'm going to be sick."

* * *

**All reviews gratefully received.**

**This Clara fragment, or Lara is dressed in an 80s style to match the era of Doctor she saw, which was Colin Baker's 6th Doctor. A very different Doctor to the one Clara and Oswin know and fancy :-)**


	16. Today's challenge

**Lara has an unconventional introduction to the TARDIS :-)**

* * *

A few minutes later Lara emerged from the bathroom, looking a bit green.

"Sorry about that."

"Better out than in eh" comforted Clara.

"This is one fascinating house" continued Lara, "This is an extraordinary bedroom, and I have never seen a bathroom like that before. How did we get here last night, I must have crashed out before we got in the taxi!"

Then suddenly it came back to her.

"This isn't, no it can't be, that's impossible! This can't be the Doctor's blue box?"

Clara and Oswin nodded. The Doctor wasn't there, as he had gone in search of another bathroom.

"B-but it's massive in here, the box is tiny. How can that be possible?"

"Everything the Doctor said to you about the TARDIS is true" replied Clara. "Fancy a guided tour before breakfast?"

Clara and Oswin took Lara around for a quick walk around the TARDIS, Lara being dazzled by what she saw.

"If only Nina was here to see all of this, she's really missed out on something amazing!"

"Who's Nina?" asked Oswin.

"Oh Nina is my friend, the one I should have been here with. When I say a friend, it's a bit more than that."

"Funny that, I also had an intimate friend called Nina" replied Oswin with a smile, "But it was a phase I was going through."

"Oh I'm sure for me that it's more than a phase" replied Lara with a sigh, "Nina is very special to me."

Clara smiled.

"But having met the Doctor, not the one in the stupid coat, but this one, or version, or whatever he is, there's something about him, that's quite compelling, quite irresistible."

Clara's smile vanished.

"Think of Nina" Clara added, with a hint of pleading in her voice, "I'm sure you have something special there, which you wouldn't want to throw away."

"Maybe you're right" replied Lara.

Oswin smirked at Clara, she knew exactly what had been going through her mind…

After breakfast. which involved Oswin making bacon sandwiches for everyone except Lara, who struggled to keep down a black coffee, the Doctor spoke.

"You all go off and enjoy yourself, don't worry about me. It's good to take a little break from the everyday stresses."

The Doctor found a deckchair in the TARDIS and brought it outside, where he sat down facing the sea, where he could see Clara, Oswin and Lara enjoying themselves in the crystal clear water. It was good for Clara to have a break, she's been under a lot of stress recently, and deserved this. And as for him, well he needed to wind down too, recharge the batteries.

It was a bit boring though, he checked his watch and he had been there, oh was that all, 10 minutes! Perhaps he'd shut his eyes for a bit, it was very pleasant in the sun, that could kill another, hmm 5 minutes. Oh god, this was going to be hard, but he had to do it for Clara, he didn't want to spoil her holiday. He'd just have to sit there and relax, and make it look as if he was enjoying himself. Easy, another 3 minutes and 25 seconds occupied.

Clara had been watching him with a smile on her face. She could just imagine the agony going through the Doctor's mind, as she knew how much he hated inactivity, but was touched as she knew he was doing it to please her. Eventually she got out of the water and walked up to him.

"How are you enjoying it here Doctor?"

"Oh great, wonderful, having an excellent time!"

"Not bored are you?"

"Why should I be bored, I'm having a lovely time here, doing, er, something or nothing."

"Thank you Doctor."

"For what?"

"For sitting here and doing nothing. I really appreciate what you're going through."

She kissed him on the cheek and returned to the water, leaving the Doctor with a smile on his face. That would be his task for the day, he'd make Clara happy by sitting there and doing nothing, no tinkering with the TARDIS, no ten dimensional algebraic calculations, he would just sit there and chill, yes that was the word. That had been a very nice swimsuit Clara had been wearing, and as for Oswin hmm…And with such thoughts the Doctor closed his eyes and eventually dozed off.

"He's fast asleep" commented Oswin. "I never imagined him switching off like that."

"He's used to destroying enemies and saving galaxies single handed, today's challenge for him was much harder; relaxing and doing nothing."

"Is he doing it for you?"

"I couldn't possibly comment."

When the Doctor eventually woke up, Clara, Oswin and Lara were sunbathing next to him on sun loungers they'd dragged up from the other side of the beach.

"Good sleep Doctor" asked Clara with a smile.

"Yes thank you. I've been thinking."

"What about?"

"Peri."

"Peri?" Clara's smile faded slightly.

"Peri and me, as in my earlier face. I still need to know what happened, as the presence of one of your fragments usually means trouble."

"What do you plan to do?"

"Go back in time, to watch over them. Crossing my own timestream is highly irregular, so it's imperative that they don't know I'm there. I won't be long, don't let me interrupt your sunbathing."

"Well I want to see this other Doctor" replied Oswin, "It'll be fun to see you all different."

"It would be nice to see what Peri looks like as well" added Clara.

"And I want a ride in your time machine!" exclaimed Lara.

"OK, but it might not be very exciting. I'll put the invisibility cloak on so that they can't see our TARDIS or us when we stand just outside it, but I can't block the noise without stopping us hearing them as well, so we have to be _completely_ silent when we're outside. I don't want to start rewriting my own history."

A few minutes later everyone reconvened by the TARDIS control room. Lara was particularly excited to have her first flight in the TARDIS, which was to be a short hop back a couple of days, but moving the TARDIS to a slightly different point on the beach. Once there the Doctor opened the door and looked out.

"Any minute now they'll arrive, once that happens absolute silence."

Soon they heard the familiar noise, and Six's TARDIS appeared a short distance from them.

Out popped Six and Peri.

"Doctor, this is amazing, thank you for taking me here!" gushed Peri.

"It is indeed very agreeable here Perpugilliam" replied Six, "I have a lot of work to do on the TARDIS, and generally find a good way of getting some space on board is to take one's Companion to somewhere agreeable, so that he or she may be otherwise occupied and hence not distract me."

"As if I'd want to be stuck inside with you anyway while you tinker away with your machine!"

"You'll find everything is provided here, food, drink and so on. My international payment crystal covers all the bills. Oh and there are some interesting plants here as well, in case you feel like utilising that botanic knowledge of yours, though I'm not banking on it."

A few minutes later Peri emerged in a bikini, and much to Clara's annoyance, lay her towel down in front of Eleven's TARDIS, and reclined there.

After a long period of waiting, the Doctor activated his sonic.

"I've activated the sound filter, they can't hear us and we can't hear them."

"Are we going to stay here all afternoon?" moaned Clara.

"Well I can't move the TARDIS, not with Peri right outside it. And I did warn that it might not be very exciting."

"I can see why you wanted to come here" teased Oswin. "A perfect chance to check out one of your former flames, and in her bikini too!"

"She is not a former flame!" exclaimed the Doctor. "She was always wearing a bikini or such skimpy clothing, not sure why really, I think it was the era. It's not as if I paid much attention to her in that way back then, funny really."

"Look!" exclaimed Lara pointing towards the other side of the beach, "It's me. Now that is spooky!"

They all watched as the earlier Lara found a secluded spot, and started undressing.

"Ah" spoke Lara with a look of concern on her face, "Perhaps it would be better if we turned away, er right now. It's just that, um, I remember now."

"What's wrong Lara?" asked the Doctor.

"Well, it was a deserted beach, so I believe I went swimming, _naked_!"

* * *

**Quite a gentle chapter that one, nice to incorporate a cameo from Six and Peri, even if Clara is getting a bit jealous as a result :-)**

**All reviews welcome as ever, they may even change the direction of the story!**


	17. I'm after an upgrade

**Time travel has its rewards for the Doctor, so it looks :-)**

**This Chapter is half fluffy, and half a bit darker...**

* * *

"Quite a choice you have there, Doctor" sniggered Oswin, "Gorgeous sunbathing Peri in this direction, skinny dipping Lara in the other. I'd never thought of you as a peeping Tom, but then you are wearing a long coat."

"I am not a peeping Tom!" huffed the Doctor. "And what is it with the long coat…ah yes, eugh, I see what you mean…and definitely not that as well!"

"But then you don't have to look outside to eye up gorgeous women, as you have them here with you inside the TARDIS!"

"Um yes, er is Lara in the water yet?" mumbled the Doctor trying to change the subject.

"Yes, she's swimming in the sea now."

"Good, I can turn around now, that's better, aaargh she's just stood up! That water isn't very deep either."

"Down boy!" sniggered Oswin as the Doctor hurriedly turned around again, while the Lara with them blushed.

"A nice little sneak preview that" continued Oswin with a saucy smile on her face. "I'm sure it's whetted your appetite for more eh Doctor."

The Doctor was fortunately saved from replying by Peri getting up and returning to Six's TARDIS.

"Now for another quick hop forward, I can only move the TARDIS when they are inside. Lara, how long did they stay here?"

"They were only here one night, I remember Peri moaning how she wanted to stay longer."

"Thanks, a quick hop to tomorrow morning then."

The Doctor set the TARDIS in motion, and soon they landed. He opened the door, outside it was still quite dark, with the sun just rising up.

"Doctor" gushed Clara, "That sunrise is gorgeous; we must get up early tomorrow morning to see it properly."

"Me too" replied Oswin, "An early morning swim under that rising sun would be divine."

"It looks like someone else thinks so as well. Look, down the other end of the beach, there's Lara."

"You Claras all think alike" laughed the Doctor. "There she is undressing on the beach for a sunrise swim, ah completely naked again, ooh!"

"I have to admire your expertise Doctor" replied Oswin with a smirk, "It's as if you've planned this whole TARDIS excursion to see Lara naked!"

"Absolutely not!"

"I'm happy to join you tomorrow morning if you fancy a bit of skinny dipping as well." Oswin reached up and started fiddling with the Doctor's bow tie. "No need to be shy chinboy!"

"No, er, got work to do, um, er. Look! The door of the TARDIS is opening."

The Doctor activated his sonic to drop the sound filter, and raised a finger to his lips to indicate silence. The four of them watched as Peri and Six left the TARDIS.

"Oh Doctor, this place is so lovely, why can't we spend longer here?"

"The Devil makes work for idle hands Peri. There is so much to see out there, and too much to do to spend our life lounging on a beach."

"But surely we could spare another day here?"

"_But_, a short word, and yet one infused with such negativity. It if pleases you, I'm sure we will return here someday, well I will anyway."

"Look! Over there, someone is in the water."

"Well other people are allowed to visit this beach."

"I don't think she's wearing any clothes either!"

"Well the water is quite warm, so she won't catch her death of cold. Time to leave her to it."

"It's so unfair, I bet your previous version would have stayed here longer."

"Life is unfair Peri. Each version of me is different, it's a lucky dip. Maybe if I regenerate you'll get a version of me you prefer, but I wouldn't bank on it."

Peri sighed as she and the Doctor walked back into the TARDIS and took off, watched by a fascinated Lara from the water. Lara had resumed her swimming when she heard the noise of the TARDIS again, yet when she looked up he saw nothing. Puzzled she continued swimming.

The Doctor returned his TARDIS back to their own timestream.

"That was disappointing, saw nothing of interest" he moaned.

"Apart from Peri and the naked Lara" replied Oswin.

"Apart from Peri and ...no!"

"I found it really interesting though" added Clara, "Seeing that earlier version of you. He was very different to both you and sandshoes Doctor." Six's alien coldness had come as a shock to Clara.

"Regeneration is a lottery, who knows what the next version of me will be like."

"Well let's hope this version hangs around for a long time to come." Clara squeezed the Doctor's hand.

"Oh, er thank you" replied the Doctor with a shy smile. "I hope so too."

The three 'Claras' were pretty tired by this point, having had an extra 3 hours of time travel squeezed into 5:39pm, and all wanted to get up early, so just had a quiet meal in the TARDIS before retiring to bed, Clara once again on the Doctor's insistence sleeping in his bed, though alone.

"After that nap on the beach this afternoon, I'm not tired Clara, but I'll be the console room in case you need me."

Clara quickly fell asleep, and eventually woke fully refreshed to see the Doctor staring at her. But he was different. HE WAS DIFFERENT! He now looked like that other Doctor, blonde curly hair, cold expression.

"What happened Doctor?"

"I regenerated."

"B-but I don't understand."

"I died, you weren't there to save me, and IT'S YOUR FAULT!"

Clara started crying.

"Look at you, a pathetic little human; you think you're so important, you think I care about you."

"But Doctor, I'm your Impossible Girl."

"Oh don't give me that rubbish, did you really think that meant anything?"

"Doctor" Clara wailed, "I thought you cared about me, that you, um…"

"That I loved you? You're just a bit of human skirt. Seeing Peri earlier today reminded me that I've had so many other human companions, all of them more interesting and attractive than you. I might go back after Peri actually, rewrite her history, I'd forgotten how sexy looking she was."

Clara stared at the Doctor, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I _much_ prefer your fragments, less frigid for a start" he continued.

"I'm frigid?"

"Little Miss Clara Frigid Oswald, I think I'll call you that from now on."

"No, no."

"At least I'd have a bit of fun with Oswin, she knows what a man wants."

"B-but you're not like that, Doctor."

"You really think that? That I'm holding back because I'm afraid of being heartbroken? I'm holding back because you've been such a _crushing_ disappointment."

"I'm a disappointment?" Clara replied in a broken voice.

"Yes, your Victorian fragment, Clara Oswin Oswald, I searched everywhere to find another version of her, but sadly only found you. The boring, bossy original."

"Boring? I can change, I promise" Clara pleaded.

"Too late for that. _Boring and bossy_" he sneered, "And with those dreadful Maitland children. Every other Companion leaps at the chance of travelling with me, but not you, oh no. _Come back tomorrow_, _see you next Wednesday_, I must have been mad to accept all that, Oswin and your other fragments would _never_ have imposed such conditions. Actually, I'll tell you the best thing about your fragments."

"What?"

"They die! The perfect Companion really, they die to save me, as I'm the important one not them. And let's face it, why would I want to go around with an old and wrinkly Companion, when I could dump them and find someone young and fresh who I can impress with my incredible knowledge! It's like, how shall I put it in human terms, upgrading your phone for the latest model."

"But Doctor, we're humans, not electrical devices to be thrown away after a couple of years?"

"Can't see the difference myself. Frankly Clara, I'm after an upgrade."

"You don't want me any more?" Clara whimpered as she faced complete rejection by the man she loved.

"She finally gets it! I suppose I should drop you back on Earth, but after travelling with me it can be hard to adapt to boring domestic drudgery again; sometimes I think it's less cruel just to kill off unwanted Companions instead."

"What?"

"In a previous version I tried to strangle Peri, but didn't do a very good job. Practice makes perfect, eh. It'll save me having to return to Earth too, I can dump your body in space."

The Doctor lunged towards Clara.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!"

Clara woke to find the Doctor shaking her.

"Wake up, you're having another nightmare!"

"NOOOOOOO! GET OFF ME!" she screamed at him until she realised that it had all been a dream, and this was the real Doctor again.

"Oh sorry, oh god" she whimpered before hugging the confused Doctor.

"What was it Clara? I could hear you screaming from down the corridor?"

"It wasn't nice."

"What was it, was it a terrifying alien?"

"You could say that…"

* * *

**I don't want to overdo the Clara nightmares, but wanted to write something much darker, where her inner insecurities all come out, a culmination of the worries expressed in the previous chapters, about her fragments, other Companions and a future Doctor who was completely different from _her_ Doctor...**

**All reviews very welcome!**


	18. Is this some kind of a joke, Doctor?

**This chapter resumes with the Doctor comforting Clara after her nightmare...and also has a twist in its tail...**

* * *

"Everything is fine now" comforted the Doctor, stroking Clara on the cheek. "It's nearly time to get up anyway if you want to see the sunrise."

"Thank you Doctor."

"There'll be a cup of tea waiting for you."

A few minutes later Clara emerged, to indeed find a cup of tea waiting for her in the kitchen. Smiling, she carried it into the console room, where she saw the Doctor buried underneath a pile of cables and panels.

"Oh there you are Clara, been doing a bit of maintenance, it's always good to give her a bit of TLC every now and then."

At that moment Oswin and Lara emerged.

"I see someone's been busy" smiled Oswin, "Though I could think of more pleasurable ways of spending the night if one isn't sleeping!"

The Doctor looked a bit flustered, then regaining his composure he told them that the sun was due up in 15 minutes so Oswin and Lara disappeared to get a cup of tea. By the time they returned, Clara and the Doctor were outside already, and were standing together half way along the beach, Clara leaning against the Doctor with her arm around him in a very clingy way, something that Oswin didn't fail to notice.

"Hmm, I wonder what's up with her" she whispered to Lara, "She's not normally that intimate with him in public?"

"Doctor" spoke Clara. "I'm not boring am I?"

"Boring? Of course not, what a strange question."

"Or bossy, I mean I've been very demanding with you haven't I."

"What's wrong?" replied the Doctor hugging her.

"It's just that, I'm sorry if I have been" continued Clara in a weak voice, her eyes growing moist, "I'm sorry I'm not like Oswin and the fragments."

The Doctor reacted with shock, breaking his hold.

"What's up with you, why do you think I want you to be like Oswin?"

"Well she's all fun and flirty and sassy. Whereas I'm the boring, cold one."

"No, no, no!"

He kissed her on the forehead before continuing.

"I don't know where you're getting these ideas from, you're wonderful as you are, I don't want you to change to be like anyone else. You, and only you, are my Impossible Girl. Now stop being silly, look the sun is coming up."

Over the horizon the sun started rising, a gorgeous red colour. Clara smiled; all was good in her world again.

The rest of the day the three 'Claras' enjoyed the beach, while the Doctor tinkered with his TARDIS. On his recommendation, they tried out the local form of snorkelling, in which virtual glasses and a personal oxygen bubble meant none of the usual equipment was needed. The fishes and sea life were dazzling and beautiful, and being the perfect beach there were no nasties waiting out there in the water to bite or sting either. Back on land, Clara was reclining with a book when

BOOOOOM!

Turning around she saw a frazzled and singed looking Doctor emerging sheepishly from the TARDIS.

"Oh hello Clara, I've er never tried that sequence of controls before, I knew it had to be good, to do something exciting, and it definitely did. Well sort off."

"Are you ok?" the concerned Clara exclaimed, as Oswin and Lara joined her.

"Oh fine, just a small explosion, nothing to worry about, she'll be right as rain once I replace those cables and clean up the fire damage."

"Are you bored?"

"No, er fine, perfect."

"You're bored aren't you Doctor, as when you're bored you start fiddling with your TARDIS."

"Well, just a tiny bit then."

"And your next fiddle could blow the whole thing up, and could even blow the whole universe up!"

"I'm sure some of the universe would survive."

"I think it's time we moved on before you do something we all regret."

"Maybe."

"It's sad to leave this paradise, but probably for the best. I guess tonight will have to be our last night here?"

"I suppose so" replied a disappointed Oswin.

"What about me?" added Lara. "My flight home isn't for another three days."

"Lara can come with us can't she Doctor" suggested Oswin. "I'm sure you can find a way to return her back to her normal life when she wants to go home again."

"I'd be delighted to have her on board; it'll be good to have a third soufflé again!"

That evening, the four of them found a nice restaurant near the beach, again robot run. A lot of people from the hotels had come over to eat there, so the robots were worked off their feet.

"Is it me" whispered Oswin, "Or are these robots looking tired?"

"That's the problem with giving robots human intelligence" replied the Doctor, "They start thinking like humans too. That robot over there preparing the fish is looking quite miserable, while the one running the bar is looking bored, and as for the one totting up the bills, it wouldn't surprise me if he's learnt how to fiddle the total."

"I guess it makes the experience more realistic, I hope the robots don't know how to spit in the food!"

That night back in the TARDIS, Clara settled down in the Doctor's bed.

"Thank you Doctor for this lovely break. It's time to return to your world now."

"Goodnight Clara" replied the Doctor, "I've got a busy night ahead of me, rebuilding the TARDIS otherwise I'd love to join you in bed."

"Would you!" replied Clara with a saucy smile on her face, before recoiling in embarrassment when she realised how Oswin like that comment sounded…

That night Clara slept like a log, with no nightmares, but instead pleasant dreams featuring just her and the Doctor, with no fragments or soufflés getting in the way. She woke fully refreshed, with a smile on her face.

* * *

The next day the Doctor had fixed everything, and the Console room was looking as good as new again.

"Victorian London here we come!"

He pulled down the lever to set the TARDIS in motion.

"Oh, that's funny, what's the TARDIS doing? She's sent us somewhere else."

Once the TARDIS landed, he approached the door.

"I've still got the cloak down so that nobody can see or hear us, so we're quite safe from detection."

He opened the door.

"Ooh, The Palace of Versailles, interesting, 18th Century. I've been here before."

"Look!" cried Clara, "It's your previous face, sandshoes Doctor. He's just walked in."

"Nice suit" replied Oswin, "Very tight, in _all_ the right places."

"But who's the woman with him Doctor."

"Ah, that's Reinette, Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV, an amazing woman, intelligent, creative, artistic…"

"Beautiful" interrupted Clara.

"Er yes, beautiful."

"Your other face certainly thinks so" added Oswin. "You must have met some amazing women in your history Doctor."

"One or two perhaps, I don't remember."

"Oh come now, flying around the universe in your magic box, a bit of a babe magnet I imagine."

"Not really" squirmed the Doctor. "I wish he, sorry I, would hurry up and get out of this room so we can leave."

"Quite a show this" smiled Oswin. "Oh, that's a shame they're leaving, I'll have to imagine what happened next!"

"At last, sorry about that, Victorian London here we come! Oh not again, come on sexy what's wrong with you, I've mended all the damage."

The Doctor opened the door and peered out.

"Oh."

"Where are we?" asked Clara.

"Tylaxon Major."

"You remember it?"

"Er yes."

The familiar sound heralded the arrival of another TARDIS, and out of it stepped another Eleven and River Song.

"Nothing worth seeing here, you might as well all stay inside" the Doctor mumbled unconvincingly.

"I know when you're lying Doctor, let me see" replied Clara with a straight face.

"There is nothing to see here. Please."

Clara walked past him anyway.

"Oh it's Professor River Song! And you; you're all dressed up for the night, in top hat and tails."

"Who's River Song" asked Oswin as she and Lara joined Clara outside.

"My wife, well former wife as she's dead now" replied the Doctor.

"Let's hear what's being said!" exclaimed Oswin.

"Oh I don't think you want to hear this."

"I think we do" huffed Clara.

"Ok."

The Doctor reluctantly dropped the sound filter.

"Such a romantic place, do you take all the girls here?" River purred.

"I don't know what you're talking about." River's Doctor smiled.

"Doctor, if only Amy and Rory knew what you get up to at night."

"It's our little secret eh, one advantage of being a time traveller, while the humans sleep we can get out."

"They would be astonished at the things you get up to."

"Well in 1000 years, you do learn a few things."

Clara signalled she had had enough, and the Doctor reactivated the sound filter.

"Is this some kind of a joke, Doctor, because if it is, it's not funny?"

"I'm so sorry Clara, but I don't understand what's going on. I've just activated manual, this time the TARDIS can't change our direction….Just landing now, NO! Not again."

Clara marched to the door before the Doctor could react.

"Let's see who we meet this time!" she spat out before opening the door.

"Oh great, it's another version of you I presume, seeing that we're reliving your greatest hits. This one has long flowing hair. And who's the lucky girl, oh it's Tasha Lem."

"Who's Tasha Lem?" asked Oswin.

"Oh, yet another one of his old flames."

"She's not one of my old flames."

"I've had enough Doctor! What's going on? Why are you tormenting me like this? Am I getting ideas above my station, thinking I meant something to you? Is that what you're doing, pushing me back into my place by showing me all your old flames?"

"Clara, I'm not trying to do anything, it's not me" he pleaded.

Clara eyes started welling up.

"Am I just the latest notch on the bedpost, is that all I am?"

"Clara you're not a notch on my bedpost, I swear."

"So I'm not even good enough to be that!"

"Clara please!"

"I've heard quite enough. I thought, how stupid, STUPID of me, that I was special to you. Well today has certainly cleared that one up, so congratulations. Timelord."

Tears were now rolling down her cheeks.

"I know you've had a long and amazing life before me Doctor, but how could you rub it in like that, showing me all these amazing and beautiful women in your history, making me feel like, nothing. How could you break my heart like that when you know I lo…'

Clara was too upset to continue and rushed away from the console room, heading for her room, as she needed to get away from him. The Doctor chased her down the corridor, but wasn't able to get there in time, while Oswin indicated to Lara that they needed to give them space.

Inside her room, Clara was surprised to find her proper comfy bed back again, and collapsed onto it distraught. The Doctor banged on the door, but Clara refused to open it. He then tried to open it with his sonic, but for some reason that didn't work either. As Clara cried herself to sleep, she was able to reflect that at least the TARDIS was back on her side again, after the Doctor's dreadful behaviour towards her that day…

* * *

**Thanks for the reviews, they are always much appreciated by writers!**

**Just when things were getting cosy between Clara and the Doctor, things go all wrong again. Sorry!**


End file.
